Where Our Lives Changed
by SenmuraAki
Summary: They were two different people on different paths. In that place, they befriended each other. Highlights of Ukitake Jyuushirou's and Kyouraku Shunsui's days in the Shinigami Academy. Full summary inside. PLS READ AND REVIEW! Non yaoi. Sorry, UkiShun fans.
1. From There We Began

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_Summary: At 180 years old, Kyouraku Shunsui was still considered a young man in Soul Society with a long way to go. But unlike other young men, he had no big ambitions. All he wanted was a simple life filled with naps and women. At 180 years old, Ukitake Jyuushirou was also a young man, though it was difficult to say that he had as long a way to go as Shunsui. Unlike other young men, he dared not have big ambitions. All he wanted was a fulfilling life with less uncertainties and more opportunities to help out as many people as he could within the indefinite span of his life. When Shunsui and Jyuushirou were 180 years old, they entered the Shinigami Academy- a place that changed their lives forever._

_A/N: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the manga and anime do not belong to me but Kubo Tite._

**Chapter One- From There We Began**

_Knock, knock_

There was no reply.

_Knock, knock, knock_

Again, there was no reply.

The old lady outside the room heaved a sigh. _Oh well_, she thought, _he has always been like this after all. What can I expect?_

Never had he once in the past 180 years of his life answered the door. Never. She supposed she was simply used to knocking the doors of her masters. After all, she had served the high-class noble House of Kyouraku for as long as she could remember. How long exactly had it been already? 8000 years? Or was it 6000 years? No, she was unable to remember anymore. She had already lost track of it a long time ago. Time in Soul Society was such a trivial and easily forgettable thing. The old lady could hardly even remember how she looked like when she was young. How black was her hair back then? How smooth was her skin? Was she attractive? She could still vaguely remember people telling her in the far past that she was pretty. Was it a real memory? Or perhaps it was just her imagination. Perhaps her brain was trying to console her old heart that she once possessed something called 'youth'. Surely any outsider would agree that she needed some consoling, for she looked so ancient and fragile, one must wonder how she could move an inch without collapsing into a pile of bones and skin. _Aging is such a sad thing_, the old lady always mused, _especially in a place like Soul Society._

As usual, she slid open the door and stepped inside. Rule number three of the 'Kyouraku Household's Servants' Code of Behaviour' stated that a servant must always wait for a master's answer before he or she could enter. But there was no use complying with this rule when the master was him, for if you were to abide by the rule, you would not be able to enter his room for eternity.

The windows were closed, so the room was rather dark. Slow and gentle snores filled the room. She hurried over to the windows and opened them, letting sunlight pour into the room. The sleeping man grunted in disgruntlement and covered his head with his blanket. The old lady then moved towards the sleeping figure and yelled, "WAKE UP!" at the top of her lungs, as loudly as her hoarse voice could go. The man under the blanket merely murmured something unintelligible and shifted slightly. The old lady was already extremely used to this situation, but her face still betrayed a hint of exasperation. She then pulled the blanket away from the man, and gripped the shoulders of the still sleeping man. For a person so old, she had a great deal of physical strength. She pulled the man into a sit-up position and shook him roughly. "WAKE UP NOW!" She yelled again.

The man tried to ignore her and continued to press his eyes shut. However, her vigorous shaking was way too difficult for him to ignore. Finally, he decided to give up and opened his eyes. "Alright, alright you old bat. I'm already awake!" He mumbled.

"Finally." She replied, and let go of him

The man with short wavy brown hair fixed his brown eyes at the old lady and grinned. "So, Mutsuki-baachan," he started, " are you here to confess your undying love for me? I have to say, I normally prefer young girls. However, since you seemed so eager to love me, I shall be kind and not break your heart. Well, not immediately, I suppose." He closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, as though to calm himself down. Opening his eyes again, he looked at Mutsuki and said in a serious tone, "I'm ready. I'm listening. Profess your love for me now!"

Mutsuki glared at him irritably and snapped, "Shut up! I'm here to tell you that the old master- your father- wants to see you now, Master Shunsui."

Shunsui's mouth dropped into a disappointed, "Oh."

Rule number two of the "Servant's Code" stated that a servant must treat his or her master with absolute respect. However, when it came to dealing with him, that rule would have to be broken too.

"So what does my old man want with me? Don't tell me he wants to confess his love for me…. No…. Even the thought of it is too unbearable for my fragile heart. Mutsuki-baachan, tell him that I do not want to see him."

"No," Mutsuki rejected flatly. Rule one states that all servants must obey all direct orders of their masters. Well, that would have to go too when it comes to him. "The old master wants to talk to you about something important. He is in the hall waiting for you now."

"Important?" He raised his right eyebrow. What his fellow family members considered important had nothing in common with him. To them, they were shinigami duties and family honour. To him, they were women and naps. Nevertheless, he forced himself up and proceeded to the hall of the manor.

"Father," he greeted as he entered the hall and saw the older man seating on a chair. He looked like a much older version of Shunsui himself.

"You are finally here," his father replied in an irritable tone, " took you long enough. Take a seat." He pointed to a chair opposite to him.

"No, thanks," replied Shunsui, "I'd much prefer to be standing. If I hear anything that I do not like, I can just turn and walk off immediately. Saves me the trouble from having to stand up again, you know."

Shunsui's father frowned. He then beckoned to a nearby servant. "Close the doors and guard them."

"Hey!" cried Shunsui. "That's mean of you!" He pouted at his father. The older Kyouraku merely shrugged at his son.

"Severe circumstances require severe measures."

Shunsui glowered at his father for a few more seconds before changing his expression into a wary look. "So, since you closed the doors, I can safely assume that what I'm going to hear would not be something that I'm going to enjoy, I suppose?"

Shunsui's father looked at him with an exasperated look. "Shunsui…. Of all my sons, you are the one with the most potential, yet you are also the one who is the laziest. Have you really no thoughts about your future?"

"No point pondering about it you know, the future is the future after all. Unknown. Unpredictable. That's the whole fun of it, isn't it?"

"Look Shunsui, if you work hard, you can go far!"

"Go far? But I like my current place! Why bother to go further than this? It's too troublesome."

"Shunsui… You are my second son! The one who is eventually going to inherit most of my fortune and become the leader of the House of Kyouraku will be your elder brother, my first son! Do you think he will be willing to support a lazy bum who does nothing all day except to sleep and chase after women? What I'm saying is for your own good! You need to get yourself a decent job! Why don't you become a shinigami like the rest of us? Help us uphold the family honour!"

"Nope. Too troublesome," replied Shunsui in a nonchalant voice.

Old Kyouraku stared at his son. What a stubborn guy. He thought inwardly. He's probably the laziest person to ever exist.

After a few minutes of silence, old Kyouraku started again. "Have you heard of Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni-taicho?"

"Huh?" started a rather puzzled Shunsui, surprised at his father's sudden change of topic. "Yeah… Of course… People are always talking about him, aren't they? He's the old shinigami captain who's tipped to be the next general-captain, isn't he? Heard he's a pretty formidable man. What about him anyway?"

"Well, he had obtained permission to set up a shinigami academy to give people an official education in shinigami skills and to teach them the specific development skills. People no longer have to learn and develop the skills by themselves. There were rumours that Genryuusai-taicho himself is going to be teaching."

"So?" asked Shunsui, who had in fact already guessed what his father was driving at, and dreaded what comes next.

"Well, one has to take an entrance exam to get into the school. Firstly, it is to ensure that the student has spiritual power and secondly, it is to find out the current standard of the student. I've signed you up for the exam. You won't have much problems with passing it."

"You WHAT?" cried Shunsui. Although he had already guessed it, the news still annoyed him no less. "No deal! How can you decide such things by yourself?"

"I'm your father!" Snapped his father back at him. "If, at the end of the six years course, you decide that you are still not interested in becoming a shinigami, then I won't force you anymore! How's that? Besides, what's so bad about attending the academy anyway? I heard that there are many girls who were interested and had already signed up for it. You will have to stay in a dormitory if you attend the academy. Think about it! Girls will surround you 24 hours a day! That is not something that you would be able to experience if you coop yourself up in your room all day in this manor!"

Shunsui froze. He had not thought about that. Girls! 24 hours a day! Yes, yes…. That sounded to him like a marvelous idea.

He grinned at his father, "Are you sure that there will be many girls?"

* * *

At the same time that the Kyouraku father-and-son exchange was taking place, another exchange was taking place in the poorer part of Seireitei. Soul Society consisted of people who were born in Soul Society by people with spiritual powers, and people who died in the real world and passed on to Soul Society. People who were born in Soul Society were considered to be the native people of Soul Society, and so have higher statuses than the people who died and passed on. These native people are called the nobles and lived in Seireitei itself, which was also the place where the shinigamis lived. The people who died in the real world passed on and settled in the districts of Rukongai, and are the peasants of Soul Society. Some of those peasants who are lucky to have spiritual powers that are high enough eventually become shinigamis, but the others with extremely low spiritual powers die and move on to another stage of the life-and-death cycle: reincarnation. 'Nobles' itself in Soul Society terms was a word that was much more fanciful than it really was. One could easily be a noble if he or she was born in Soul Society or if he or she becomes a shinigami. Therefore, the nobles are further split into high-class, middle-class and low-class. The most famous of the high-class noble houses are the four major noble houses such as Kuchiki and Shihouin. However, the low-class noblemen lived a life rather similar to the peasants in Rukongai, albeit slightly better and definitely much safer.

The members of the low-class House of Ukitake were having their lunch when the eldest child, Ukitake Jyuushirou, made such a startling announcement that his mother, who was eating her rice nearly choked in surprise while his father accidentally overturned and spilled his cup of tea in shock. Despite the slightly dramatic response of his parents, Jyuushirou continued with his task of eating his third bowl of rice. He had expected those reactions after all. "You WHAT?" cried his parents in unison, wanting to confirm that they are not imagining what they thought they heard him said.

Jyuushirou took his time to chew and swallow his rice and then replied calmly, "I said, I am going to take the entrance exam for the shinigami academy. I want to be a shinigami." His parents gaped at him in disbelief. There were no doubts about his abilities. They could not deny that he was a talented child. As a matter of fact, he was extremely talented. He learnt many of the kidou spells that they taught him extremely easily. He would most certainly be able to pass the entrance exam. However, the problem was his weak health. There was absolutely no way that a person with such a weak body could become a shinigami. No way at all! The husband and wife looked at each other, each prompting the other to talk some sense into their son.

After a few minutes of prolonged glaring at her husband, Jyuushirou's mother turned to face her eldest son, who, unlike her other children, has a head of distinctive short hair that had turned white three days after his lung problems first surfaced when he was young. She started, "Jyuu-chan…. I know why you want to become a shinigami. It's because of us right? You want to earn more money to support the family. Jyuu-chan…. Think about your health. The job of a shinigami is too strenuous for your body. We can find other ways to earn money. Nothing matters to us more than your health."

Jyuushirou said nothing and continued chewing his rice slowly while he turned his head over to look at the family's rice field through the window. The harvest had been getting worse every single year. They barely had enough to feed the family now, let alone sell. Not only was there a huge family to feed, the fact that he himself had a huge appetite made him feel even worse. His parents used to be shinigamis before he was born. Unfortunately, Jyuushirou was born with a weak body and was almost constantly sick. His mother resigned in order to take care of him. However, for some reason that he could not quite understand, his parents continued to give birth to more children. His father had to eventually give up his job as a shinigami as well to help his wife take care of the children. A shinigami had to spend too much time away from his family after all. They decided to earn a living by planting rice instead. However, since the harvest had been getting worse, Jyuushirou could not help but acknowledge the fact that his family would be reduced to absolute poverty in a few years time if nothing were done.

Jyuushirou already had six siblings - four brothers and two sisters. Another one was on its way. Not that he minded of course, nothing more joyful could fill the house than life itself. _Especially with a sickly person like me around_, he thought bitterly. He quickly cheered himself up with the thought of having a new sibling soon and amused himself by wondering whether the baby would be a boy or girl this time round.

He had already been sickly since he was born, so he had long been accustomed to his weakness. Nevertheless, it still did not stop him from feeling a sense of helplessness. As the eldest son, he felt that it should be his responsibility to share the burden of his family with his parents. However, since he was almost always sick, he was unable to do much for them. In fact, he felt that he was a burden to them instead. Occasionally, during his rare better days, he was able to help his parents tend the field, cook the meals and look after the kids. However, those were only the rare better days. _I want to do something more_, he thought in frustration.

Today was thankfully, one of his better days. When he went out to help his mother buy some groceries (which is nothing more than some milk and onion), he overheard some people talking loudly about the shinigami academy.

_"Have you heard? Old Kyouraku signed his second son up for the entrance exam of the academy!"_

_"Academy? What academy?"_

_"Haven't you heard? Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni-taicho is setting up an academy to give people proper education in shinigami skills!"_

_"Yamamoto? THAT Yamamoto?"_

_"Yep! There are rumours that he may be teaching in the academy himself!"_

_"Really? Lucky students! Anyway, I thought Kyouraku's second son is a lazy womanizer with no ambitions and interests? Will he be willing to go to the entrance exam?"_

_"Who knows? I heard lots of girls are interested though. He may take the exams for the sake of the girls…."_

_"My, my, that guy…."_

Later on, he was even given a leaflet about it on his way home. The academy was practically the greatest talking topic in the whole of Soul Society right now. However, to Jyuushirou, it was not who the founder of the academy was that excited him; neither did he even had the faintest idea who the second son of Kyouraku was. To him, the academy offered him a chance to settle his family's problems. He would be able to support his family after he graduate; his parents would not have to work so hard anymore. He would also be staying in the academy for most of the next six years. His mother would not need to take care of him much. His meals would also be settled in the academy. This would place less strain on his family and his siblings would be able to eat more. He would no longer be a burden to his family! Yes, what could be better than that?

Turning from the window back to his mother, Jyuushirou finally spoke, "Mother… I'll manage it somehow…. Please... Just…. Let me try…."

_…to help_, he finished in his mind. He had no idea how to be a shinigami when he could not even manage to be a good enough eldest son, but he really wanted to try. His future might seem dim, but it was still worth a try.

Looking at the determined look in his eyes, his parents knew that they had no choice but to believe in him - their capable but unfortunate child.

**Author's Notes: How is the first chapter? Did you like it? This chapter is greatly influenced by the biographies of Ukitake and Shunsui in volume 18 of the manga. I have no idea how old they were when they joined the Academy. 180 years old is merely a rough guess. This is my first time writing a fan fiction. Help to guide me by reviewing okay?**


	2. And So We Met

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: Sorry for taking so long to update. I was suffering from a bit of a metal block. Haha… Many thanks to my reviewers! Your reviews are greatly appreciated. To those who mentioned that Ukitake is their favourite character, he's mine too. That was why I decided to write this story! I'm totally obsessed with him! And Shunsui, he totally cracks me up! To Mitsikusji, thanks for the information. You are right. Jyuushirou means '14th son'. But it was mentioned in his biography in volume 18 of the manga that he is the eldest son. While Kubo Tite did not offer an explanation, I did thought of one, and was planning to add it into this chapter. This chapter turned out to be too long, so I had to cut it into two. The explanation will be added to the next chapter instead. To TheSmallestGhost, your review helped me to edit the shorter summary. Thanks! Due to the words limit, I couldn't think of what to write._

_Have fun reading, people!_

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the manga and the anime do not belong to me, but Kubo Tite._

**Chapter Two- And So We Met**

It was already long past midnight, but the man continued sitting next to where his kids were sleeping, patting the back of one of them gently, while humming a slow and soft lullaby. He turned and looked down at them. His youngest daughter, Sakura, the one whom he was coaxing to sleep, seemed to have finally fallen asleep. He stopped humming the lullaby, but instead of heading to bed, he remained where he was seated, and continued to pat Sakura's back. The kids are all lying on a big mattress positioned in a corner of the house, with only a thin and old blanket covering them. Every single one of these six children had been sleeping like that ever since they were born. However, none of them had ever complained to him about their conditions. Every night, as he looked at them sleep, his heart always felt as though it had been heavily chained to something - guilt. _You are all nice children_, he thought, b_ut I can give all of you no material comfort. The only valuable thing that I can give to each of you is a chance to live._

Just then, the door of the only bedroom in the house slid open. A petite little pregnant woman walked noiselessly out of the room and took extra care to close the door to the room as quietly as possible. She would have been quite a pretty little lady if only her face did not look so worn out, and a worried look was not etched permanently onto her otherwise lovely face. She was after all still considered relatively young by Soul Society's standard. The woman turned to look at her husband, who immediately gave her a look that quite plainly asked, "How is he feeling right now?" She replied his unspoken question by closing her eyes and shaking her head sadly. They had always have a knack for being able to communicate with each other without words. It was an ability that apparently caused many around them to feel envious of. She sat down next to her husband, who took one of her hands in his immediately. With 180 years worth of experience, they knew that they were both unlikely to be able to sleep in peace tonight, and so they decided to simply sit through the night together in silence.

The sun finally rose, and the couple stood up to prepare themselves for the day.

Suddenly, a string of vigorous harsh coughs from within the bedroom broke the silence that had been maintained throughout the whole night. The woman quickly made her way to the bedroom, but the bedroom's door had already opened before she could reach.

"Jyuu-chan!" She exclaimed immediately, upon seeing her eldest son stumbling weakly out of the room. "What are you doing out of your bed? You were running an extremely high fever! Has your fever subsided?"

The pale-looking young man looked at her with a slightly groggy kind of look. "Fever…?" He murmured, and then he placed his right hand on his head to test his own temperature. "I think I should be fine now, Mother. Don't worry…" He finally concluded, and started to slap his own face lightly with his both hands to wake himself up. "By the way, what is the date today? Isn't today the day for the entrance exam?"

"Jyuu-chan! You can't possibly be thinking of taking the exam in your current condition! I'm not going to let you go!" His mother said hurriedly. "Your father will go and inform them about your condition. They might allow you to take the exam on another day."

"But Mother, you know my condition… My health is unpredictable. I must take it today." Jyuushirou protested. "I must go. Please… Mother."

Jyuushirou's mother was about to open her mouth in disapproval again, but her husband interrupted.

"Let him go, dear. Nothing can change his mind anymore after he had made a decision."

Jyuushirou's mother stopped her protests. Her husband was absolutely right.

* * *

Grinning madly, Kyouraku Shunsui sashayed towards the assembly area of the Shinigami Academy where many prospective students gathered, all of them waiting patiently to enter the examination hall and chatting excitedly about possible questions and examining methods. The entrance exam, to Shunsui, could be considered an extremely important event. The exam was the pathway to his desired paradise- a place filled with many pretty women. In order to be able to walk on this path, Shunsui spent the 'whole day' yesterday to 'study' for the exam (actually, all he did was to flip through a book named _Fundamental Shinigami Skills_, by Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni during the short period of time that he was not asleep). He even woke up early this morning before dear old Mutsuki-baachan could, in his view, 'arrive to knock down his door and kick him awake'. That alarmed Mutsuki so much that Shunsui was rewarded the honour to view the rare startled expression of Mutsuki. He even dressed himself in a flashy pink garment that he bought especially for this 'special event'. In his opinion, pink represented sweet romance, and no other colour would be able to bring out his manly charms better than pink.

Once he reached the assembly area, he walked idly around it, while studying each of the prospective students. Every time he passed by a female, he would stop to stare at her with eyes filled totally with pride, as though he was looking at something of his that he was extremely proud of. While he stared at others, many of the prospective students stopped in their tracks to stare at him as well. Shunsui, however, felt no discomfort from being stared at. Instead, he loved all the attention that was being 'showered' on him. _My manly charms must be getting to everyone_, he thought happily. He continued strolling around the compound, until he finally found what he was looking for- a girl with long dark brown hair, decorated with large beautiful curls.

_Ah ha… There you are… My angel!_

He walked swiftly to the would-be school belle and stopped right in front of her. Before the poor bewildered girl could say anything, Shunsui lifted her chin and stared intently into her light blue eyes. "My beloved princess, whose eyes remind me of the lovely blue skies, you must be an angel who had descended to grant me a kiss."

As he moved his face forward to deliver a big wet kiss on the lips of the frozen girl, a firm hand gripping his right shoulder stopped him. " Please stop it," came a stern voice from behind him. Shunsui turned his head around to see a young man who, in his opinion, was one of the most striking people that he had ever seen. That, to him, meant quite a lot, for despite his usual demeanour, he considered himself to be quite an observant person. Since he was young, he would sometimes sit on top of a tree whenever he was bored to observe the many people who paid visits to his father. _Another hypocrite_, he would often think, for hardly any one of them was sincere. All they wanted were opportunities to become closer to the Kyouraku clan, or otherwise chances to ask for favours. Besides, as a womaniser, he had observed many women before as well. If any mere acquaintance of Shunsui finds out that Shunsui considered himself an observant person, he or she might mistaken Shunsui for a shameless and immodest person, but Shunsui did honestly believe himself to have the ability to understand truth and that was why he disliked bothering himself with most people. His father probably knew his ability too, for he would often ask Shunsui for his opinions on things and people.

It was not that the man looked extremely extraordinary or anything. Granted, he did look a little unusual. The man had white hair, and even in Soul Society, white hair did not commonly grow on young men's head. Despite being a little pale and slightly on the thin side, the man whose hand was still on Shunsui's shoulder was actually quite a handsome young man, and what Shunsui would normally deem as a pretty boy. Nevertheless, he was still relatively normal. Instead, what strikes Shunsui the most were the eyes of the man. They speak of justice and protectiveness, of rights and wrongs. The man possessed a pair of eyes with genuine emotions filled in them, and that, in Shunsui's opinion, was rare.

"A man should treat women with respect," the man continued. Although he was speaking with a calm tone, Shunsui was still able to catch a slight hint of threat in the man's tone. Shunsui was no simpleton. He could tell that this man was no joke, and he had to take him seriously.

* * *

Jyuushirou hated this kind of situations. He had frail health, and these situations often require him to teach this kind of guys a lesson. It was not that he could not do it, but each 'lesson' exhausts him quite a lot, especially when he was in this type of condition. Besides, fighting was not exactly his cup of tea. However, it was also not in his nature to ignore people in distress. The flamboyantly dressed man turned and stared at him, totally forgetting about the girl whom he was about to kiss. Upon seeing Jyuushirou, the frozen girl snapped back to normal, pushed Shunsui away and ran away quickly.

"Hey! Don't go!" the man called after her. The girl did not stop, but ran even faster than before. "Aww…" groaned the man, as he turned his attention back to Jyuushirou.

"Look," he started, with a calm expression on his face, "don't think I'm some sex maniac or something. That was merely my way of showing appreciation for a female's beauty. Tell you what, I'll go look for her now to apologise, okay?"

Jyuushirou raised his eyebrow at the man in front of him. That was not what he had expected. Normally, in this type of situations, the harasser would take a short glance at Jyuushirou's pale face and rudely ask him to mind his own business. Jyuushirou would obviously refuse and the person would threaten to beat him up. Then, Jyuushirou would have no choice but to fight the man. The guy in front of him, however, sexually harassed a girl publicly, then declared that he was merely showing appreciation for the girl's beauty, and even offered to apologise to the girl immediately. _Is he joking_, Jyuushirou wondered, _or is this his way of taunting me? He looks completely serious though._

Realising Jyuushirou's disbelief, the man gave a hurt expression and asked, "You don't believe me?"

"Ah! I know! Here, come with me, I'll apologise to her in front of you!" he added, his face brightening up suddenly with enthusiasm. Without any warning, he grabbed Jyuushirou's wrist and tugged him away with him.

"Hey, wait!" said Jyuushirou in alarm, but the man did not seem to hear him. The man suddenly caught sight of the girl and ran after her, dragging Jyuushirou along.

"Hey! You!" cried the man at the girl earlier, who was sitting with a friend, sobbing into her hands. At his voice, the girl looked up, gave a frightened scream, and started to run away again.

* * *

On the top floor of the school building, Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni looked down through the window at the prospective students of the new academy that he had set up. However, even from so high up, Yamamoto was still able to catch sight of a rather peculiar scene. A man in pink seemed to be pulling a man with white hair along with him, chasing after what seemed like a girl.

"A bunch of fools," he mumbled.

* * *

"No, no! Don't run!" Shunsui shouted after the girl. "I'm here to apologise! Look! I even brought the guy who helped you along with me!"

At his words, the girl slowed down her pace to look back over her shoulder. What she saw made her stopped in her tracks immediately and her frantic look to change into a look of horror instead, causing Shunsui to give her a look of confusion. She raised a finger and pointed to something behind Shunsui. Puzzled, Shunsui quickly whipped around. His own face turned into a look of shock. The man who stopped him earlier was looking pale and deathly, his face almost the same colour as his hair.

"Hey! What's wrong with you?" Shunsui asked in panic, quickly letting go of the man's wrist and moving forward to help the man. The man did not reply him. He was sweating profusely and gasping for air, seemingly having difficulty breathing.

"What's wrong?" Shunsui asked again, while gripping the man's shoulders.

The man started coughing violently, and then suddenly pushed Shunsui away from him. To the horror of Shunsui and the students surrounding them, the man covered his mouth with a hand hurriedly and started coughing blood onto it. After a few more coughs of blood, he collapsed onto the ground and fainted.

**Author's Notes: So, how is this chapter? I couldn't think of a way to start this chapter, so it took me quite a while. There are some more things that I wanted to include in this chapter, but it became too long, so they will have to be in the next chapter then. The introduction is a bit long, right? I kind of like it though, so I left it as it is. I really liked the first chapter, so I'm hoping that this chapter will be up to standard. By the way, since I kind of shifted the story between the characters, was it a little confusing? Please read and review! Thanks!**


	3. A Different Man

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: Oh dear… An extremely late update eh? Sorry about it!_

_By the way, thanks for the reviews! It's always so fun to read them._

_To TheSmallestGhost: Regarding Ukitake's hair, I am assuming that in the Bleach universe, people with strange hair colours aren't exactly very uncommon. The characters in 'Bleach' described the hair colours as they are shown. Hitsugaya seems to be totally normal and healthy, but his hair is also white. So it is not impossible to see young people with white hair. Since this is an anime, it is kind of common to have people with strange hair and eyes colour and the characters in the animes will all find them normal. That's why nobody bothered to shun Ukitake._

_As for the exact type of garment that Shunsui wore in the last chapter, it was a men's kimono. A pink one, with some flowery patterns similar to the pink haori that he wears over his captain's haori. Plain clothes are simply not Shunsui's style, don't you think?_

_Have fun reading, people!_

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

**Chapter Three- A Different Man**

_Something's wrong_, the old man standing on the top floor of the main school building thought. The young man with white hair had suddenly collapsed onto the ground and the surrounding crowd was suddenly creating a huge commotion. Some of the people in the crowd were moving towards the collapsed man, and some others seemed to be running away from the crowd, perhaps to look for help, or perhaps out of fright. It was obvious what Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni needed to do - help. Despite looking so old and ancient, Yamamoto easily jumped over the window. To the amazement of the prospective students standing near the school building, they saw the old man jumped from the top floor of the school building, and landed lightly on the ground, as though he was a young lad doing a tiny little jump that was not worth much effort. A second later, he disappeared from their sight. All it took for Yamamoto to reach the scene was a small little _shunpo_ step. A crowd of people were standing in front of him. He did not even bother to ask them to make way for him. He was, after all, a man with little patience, especially in a serious situation. Of course, it would not have taken him more than a few seconds to ask them to make way for him, but he had a better way. He jumped over the crowd.

The man with white hair was sprawled on the ground. Blood was visible around his mouth, and one of his hands was spilled with blood from the owner himself. The idiot who was outrageously dressed in pink stood at the position where he had been pushed to earlier, apparently frozen in shock, and unaware of the presence of Yamamoto. Yamamoto was about to move forward to take a look at the unconscious guy on the ground, but before he could move, the idiot in pink seemed to have already completely snapped out of his shock, and was moving towards the young man with white hair calmly. Something about the idiot made Yamamoto decide to stay back and observe. _He is giving out a completely different type of aura from just now_, Yamamoto realised. A look of dead seriousness had already replaced the idiot's initial look of astonishment. It was a look that Yamamoto did not expect from such a seemingly flippant man. Yamamoto was a conservative man. 'A fool without a man's dignity' was the initial impression that Yamamoto had of the flamboyantly dressed man. However, Yamamoto could now sense another side to the man in pink - a more solemn and unruffled side.

In a careful manner that was also unexpected of him, the man in pink gently swung one arm of the unconscious man over his shoulders and helped the unconscious man up. Quietly, he studied the crowd around him. His eyes fell almost immediately on Yamamoto. Yamamoto was easy to spot after all. Although he was not wearing his captain haori, an old man wearing a shinigami uniform in the midst of a bunch of young people was as easy to spot as a wolf trying to hide itself amongst a flock of sheep. "Hey you, the old man over there!" the man cried out to him, completely disregarding the fact that he was talking to a shinigami. Yamamoto did not really care if the man knew who he was, but he thought that the man, as a young man and a prospective student, should at least have more manners towards an old shinigami like him. "You are a shinigami right? What are you standing over there for? Do you know the way to the school's sick-room?"

As annoyed as Yamamoto was, he did not show his feelings. It was clear to both Yamamoto and the insolent brat that the most important thing now was to bring the unconscious man to the sick-room. However, Yamamoto saw no need for the brat to bring the man there himself.

"I'll have somebody bring this young man to the sick-room." Yamamoto said, as he approached the brat, "You should remain here. The exam is about to start in five minutes."

"The exam doesn't matter anymore," replied the brat, "This is more important."

* * *

Jyuushirou thought he was already ill enough, but the moment he opened his eyes, he thought he was going to suffer from a heart attack as well. A grinning face positioned at only three inches away from Jyuushirou's own face was staring straight down at him. Jyuushirou gave a sharp yelp, pushed the face away as hard as he could, and sat up on his bed hastily.

"Ouch!" cried the owner of the face, now burying the face in his hands, "Why did you do that for?"

"That should be my line," retorted Jyuushirou at the man that he almost fought with a few hours ago, as he rubbed his chest hurriedly, and wiped the sweat on his forehead away using his blanket.

"I thought I saw your eyes moved a little, so I wanted to take a closer look," answered the man, drying some tears near the corners of his eyes away using one of the sleeves of his pink and flowery kimono. "But anyway, you are awake!" boomed the man excitedly. "I'm so glad! You scared me back there!"

"Did I?" Jyuushirou asked, the bewildered eyes that he was wearing turned quickly into a pair of apologetic eyes. "I'm sorry! I'm very sorry!" he apologised furiously.

"Hey, hey, this should be my line," the man told him quickly, "I should be the one to apologise. I caused you to faint, didn't I?"

"No, no, it's not really your fault. You didn't know I was not feeling well. I had been ill for the past three days. I just wasn't in the state to start running all of a sudden."

The man looked at Jyuushirou with a bemused expression. "You are very strange. In this kind of situations, you should be angry with me instead of apologising to me. Haven't you notice? You've missed the exam. All because of a crazy, eccentric, but handsome man who wanted to appreciate women by kissing them."

Upon hearing that, Jyuushirou's eyes widened. The man was absolutely right. Of course, it was not the "crazy, eccentric, but handsome man" part that the man was right about. Although Jyuushirou felt himself agreeing innately that the man did seem crazy and eccentric, he found himself unwilling to form an opinion on the rightness or wrongness of the latter part of the description. Rather, it was the part about Jyuushirou missing the exam that disturbed him. Admittedly, he felt extremely disappointed, but since it was already over, he knew there was nothing he could do about it. _It's probably fate_, Jyuushirou mused sadly, _falling sick days before the exam and collapsing on the day itself. I suppose I'm never meant to be a shinigami._

The man must have seen the expression in Jyuushirou's eyes, for he continued, "You are upset, aren't you? I can tell that the exam meant a lot to you. Are you still going to say that it was not my fault?"

"It is not your fault!" Jyuushirou replied hurriedly, with sincerity brimming in his eyes. "Do I look like such a shameless person who will blame somebody for something that cannot be helped?" he added jokingly.

"Yes you do," replied the man immediately. Jyuushirou mocked an overdramatic insulted face, causing the man to laugh loudly in response.

After that, the man said nothing but surveyed Jyuushirou with interest for a while. "You are very kind," he finally said. A moment of silence later, the man asked curiously, "By the way, what's wrong with you?"

Jyuushirou gave a small smile. He had already expected the conversation to somehow come to this. This was always the part that he hated the most every time he met someone new. He would have to explain his illness. Although he had done it for more than a century already, Jyuushirou still found himself nervous about this particular question, for he was always worried about the reactions of people to his explanation. However, Jyuushirou wanted everybody around him to understand his illness completely before befriending him. He did not want them to ostracise him or to deem him an annoying burden after they had already befriended each other. That, to Jyuushirou, was many times worse than his bad health.

"I'm born with a weak body." started Jyuushirou. He paused for a while and then continued carefully and slowly, "I have Consumption. Not long after I was born, my mother fell ill. She was supposed to rest after just having gave birth to me, but due to my poor health and my susceptibility to illnesses, I was at a high risk of losing my life. My mother took care of me, and after a few weeks, she fell ill herself out of tiredness. My mother could not feed me, so my father decided to give me fresh milk from the market instead. However, it seemed that the cow that gave the milk had Consumption, and I was infected with Consumption as well. For a short while it seemed as though I've recovered from it, but it keeps coming back every now and then. What you saw just now was another one of my Consumption attacks. You don't have to worry too much though. I was infected due to having drunk infected milk. It is a slightly different kind of Consumption. While it is possible for me to pass the illness to you, it is not likely."

Jyuushirou then looked at the man directly in the eyes and said quietly, "However, I can understand if you are afraid."

However, to Jyuushirou's surprise, the man simply looked at Jyuushirou calmly and chirped happily, "No worries. I'm not afraid. I was merely curious to know."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I've already guessed it when I saw you coughed blood just now, but I am still standing around in this room with you, aren't I? Don't worry, I don't mind it at all," the man continued reassuringly.

_This man is strange indeed, but he is undoubtedly a good man_, thought Jyuushirou. _He's different from others. Most people take time to learn that they need not be afraid of my illness, and there are some people who are willing to accept me without much hesitation, but this is the first time that I see a man with no hint of uncertainties in his eyes._

"Thank you," Jyuushirou said with a grateful smile on his face, "You are the kind one."

"You are right! I have such a kind and noble soul, don't I?" exclaimed the man proudly, beaming with happiness from having been praised. "But I think you are some of the kindest and noblest people I've ever met," he added.

Jyuushirou was starting to be very amused by the words and actions of the strange man. "And what makes you think so?" inquired Jyuushirou.

"Well," started the man, "From what I can tell, you do not blame your parents at all. You are the kind who prefers to put everything on your own shoulders whether they are really your fault or not, and then forgive the people who are really at fault. You don't try to search for reasons to push responsibilities and faults to anybody. People like to blame other people to make them feel better, but you don't. If this is not kindness, then I'd say that this is utter stupidity."

"Hmm… Well, I do not have any reason to blame my parents for my illness. In the first place, I have a weak body, and my lungs are especially weak. I'm pretty sure that even if they had never fed me the cow's milk, I would still have ended up with Consumption somehow. My parents could have left me to die and they would have an easier life, but they took care of me instead. What more can I ask for? I'm already used to my weak body, so it is of no big deal to me. However, I cannot deny that I feel extremely frustrated at my incapability to do much for people. With my inabilities, if I still try to push responsibilities and faults to other people to make me feel better, then I'm nothing more than a worthless fool. Perhaps it might seem to be more of stupidity than kindness, but I think I'd rather be stupid than worthless." Jyuushirou replied thoughtfully. "Besides," he carried on with a grin on his face, as he patted his own head proudly, "looking on the bright side, I like my hair colour. My mum said that my hair turned white three days after my Consumption symptoms first appeared. Isn't it cool?"

"Yeah, it's really cool. It makes you a really cool-looking pretty boy," the man replied teasingly.

Jyuushirou beamed happily. Then, realising that he had almost forgotten to do something, he held out a hand to offer a handshake and added, "Oh, I almost forgot to introduce myself! My name's Ukitake Jyuushirou."

The man enthusiastically grabbed Jyuushirou's hand with his two hands and shook it vigorously. "Jyuushirou? You are the fourteenth son?" he asked incredulously.

Jyuushirou chuckled. "No, no… A lot of people always think that I am the fourteenth son. Actually, I'm the eldest. It is the tradition of the Ukitake family to name the eldest son after the generation that he is born in. I'm from the fourteenth generation."

"Oh, I see!" the man replied. "I am Kyouraku Shunsui! You can call me Shun-Shun if you like!"

"Kyouraku… That sounds very familiar… Don't tell me you are the infamous second son of Kyouraku." Jyuushirou wondered out loud.

"You've heard of me?" Shunsui asked elatedly. "It must be the girls! The girls must have been spreading word to everybody about what a good-looking young man I am!"

Jyuushirou smirked. "No. Actually, I overheard two middle-aged men talking about you being a womaniser and a lazybum."

Kyouraku's face turned sulky immediately. "You must be kidding right? You must be kidding, aren't you? Eh, Shirou-chan?"

"Oh no, I am completely serious!" Jyuushirou continued his teasing, purposely emphasising the word 'completely'. "By the way, I'm not calling you Shun-Shun. I think I'll just stick to Kyouraku. You can call me Ukitake. Please pass me my bag, KYOU-RA-KU."

"Aww…. Jyuu-Jyuu! Don't be so mean to me," crooned Shunsui, with a pout on his face, as he grabbed a bag from a nearby chair and passed it to Jyuushirou. "Here, say it with me. 'Shuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnn-Shuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnn'."

"Never."

* * *

The two idiots did not realise the presence of Yamamoto. One was too busy with saying something that sounded like "Shun-Shun", the other was busy rummaging through a bag, apparently searching for something, all the while idly replying things like "no" or "never" to every "Shun-Shun" attempts made at him. It was not until Yamamoto gave a small cough that they finally took notice of him.

"Er-hem."

The two idiots finally stopped fooling around and turned their heads around to look at the source of the cough.

"Oh! It's you! The old man from just now!" the brat in pink exclaimed. "Hey Uki-chan, he was the old man who led me to this sick-room!"

"Is that so? So you are a kind person too!" the man with white hair said, looking at Yamamoto happily. "I must thank you! Here, have some sweets!" His busy hands finally emerged from the bag and with an eager grin, he showed Yamamoto what he had been looking for earlier - a packet of sweets. "Here, Kyouraku," the man continued, turning to look at the pink idiot and shoving a candy to him, "you can have one!"

_Brats nowadays are full of silly antics_, Yamamoto told himself inwardly. "There is no need for it. I'm merely here to inform you of a few things," he told the man with white hair coolly. "First, the school had already informed your parents of your condition. However, since the school is quite a distance from your house, it would not be convenient for them to visit you, especially with your mother heavily pregnant and there being a need for your parents to look after your many siblings. We've informed them that you are in good care and that there is no need to worry."

"Good. I don't want them to exhaust themselves," the man with white hair replied with a grateful tone, heaving a sigh of relief.

"Secondly, I've heard about what happened to you earlier. After discussion with the board and the staff of the school, we've decided to let you take the exam after you are fit to do so due to your earlier commendable behaviour. In the meantime, you may stay here. As for you," he said, turning to look at the pink brat, "we heard that you molested a girl in public. Such kind of behaviour will not be tolerated in this school. Besides, since you had said earlier that you do not wish to take the exam anymore, the school will not be making any arrangements-"

"Wait!" interrupted the man with white hair. "You have not taken the exam yet?" he turned and asked the man in pink in alarm. The man in pink said nothing but merely shrugged. Turning quickly to Yamamoto, the man with white hair said hurriedly, "Please sir, you need to let him take the exam!"

"But he-"

"Kyouraku!" the man interrupted again, as he nudged the other man quickly, "Explain yourself to him!"

"Huh?" the man uttered nonchalantly, "Must I?"

The man with white hair shot a glare at the brat. "Okay, okay, I get it," the man mumbled. "Old man, I was just trying to show my appreciation for the lady. Do you not think that women are the most beautiful creatures to ever exist? They possess not only physical beauty,"- he paused to make an inappropriate gesture with his hands- "but also the ability to love and care, especially for their children and the younger generations! Do you not think that they should be appreciated and wooed and pampered?"

Yamamoto could not take it anymore. The young man was getting onto his nerves. His face could no longer help but betray a hint of annoyance. Deeply irritated, he turned to leave but was once again stopped by the man with white hair. "Sir, please! Let him take the exam. Otherwise, I do not want to take the exam too!"

Yamamoto stopped in his tracks. Part of him - the exasperated part - wanted to tell the man with white hair that, if that was the case, he need not take the exam too. Another part of him however, could not help but notice that although the both of them barely knew each other, they were each willing to give up their exams to help the other.

"Fine," Yamamoto finally answered after a long moment of consideration, "the both of you may take the exam together then."

**Author's Notes: I found this chapter rather difficult to write. I wanted to explain some stuff, but it was difficult to connect the explanations together. By the way, I did a little bit of research on tuberculosis a.k.a consumption. As people know, tuberculosis is caused by mycobacteria and is mostly transmitted through air. The main kind of bacterium that causes tuberculosis is mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, in Ukitake's case, I decided to have his tuberculosis be caused by another kind of bacterium: Mycobacterium bovis. Animals, especially cattles, are the maintenance hosts for the bacteria. However, humans can get infected by drinking unpasteurised milk or eating raw milk products. Nowadays, this form of tuberculosis is uncommon in developed countries, as the milk sold in developed countries have been pasteurised. However, in the older days, this form of tuberculosis is common, affecting kids and old people in particular. Since this story takes place in a Soul Society more than 2000 years ago, I thought this form would be feasible for Ukitake. While Bovine Tuberculosis mostly affect extrapulmonary areas, it can also affect the lungs. The symptoms of bovine tuberculosis are practically the same as the tuberculosis caused by mycobacterium tuberculosis. However, human-to-human infection is less common. I needed an explanation on why nobody bothers to shun Ukitake in the original Bleach storyline, that's why I chose to use bovine tuberculosis. The tuberculosis of Ukitake also reactivates every time his health is poor. I think this is called reactivated tuberculosis or something. I'm not too sure. These are basically what I've gathered from what I've read. Please take in mind that I'm no medical doctor, so please don't take my explanation too seriously.**

**Actually, initially, I wanted to presume that Soul Society is without air and people there basically breathe in spirit particles instead. Since tuberculosis is transmitted through air, people in Soul Society cannot be affected. However, I later decided that this explanation wouldn't work since the bacterium itself would obviously also be made up of spirit particles. That's why I chose the Bovine Tuberculosis explanation instead.**


	4. Attraction

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: I apologise. My updates are taking longer and longer, isn't it? I'm so sorry about it! Thank you very much for waiting patiently!_

_To TheSmallestGhost: Nope, Kubo Tite didn't really said much about Ukitake's ailment except for things like born with weak body, the hair turned white three days after the lung disease first surface, and tuberculosis (actually, to literally translate from what Kubo Tite wrote, I think he said 'lung ailment')._

_And in my story, Yamamoto was only a captain at that time, although he's set to be promoted soon. I made him the captain of the tenth division. No special reasons for making him the captain of this particular division though. I just wanted to assign him a number. Sasakibe Choujirou was already serving him as his lieutenant at that time. And yes, an organised army already existed back then._

_This chapter is a bit wordy and long-winded this time round. Haha… But I still hope that you will have fun reading it! Please read and review! I really, really like reading the reviews!_

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

**Chapter Four- Attraction**

In the tenth division headquarters, Yamamoto sat alone in his office, with an annoyed and disturbed look on his usually impassive face. He felt utterly disgusted at himself. For the first time in his long life, he was trying to force himself to focus on his work. Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni prided himself for being a very disciplined person; a person famous for being able to concentrate on his work calmly and seriously to the point that the most irritating fly in existence would not have the means to distract his brain from thinking, his eyes from staring straight at his work, and his old wrinkled hand from writing furiously. He worked as though he was 'possessed'. Nothing had ever been able to 'drive' the 'work, work and work' spirit away from him. That was, until this very day. For the whole morning today, he had been staring at the same page, unable to move on to the next. _And whose fault is this?_ He wondered. _The brats'_, he decided.

Finally conceding to the fact that he would not be able to accomplish anything by staring, he pushed his work aside, and started to tap his fingers absentmindedly on his desk. He could not understand it himself. It was just an entrance exam for two little brats. Brats, in Yamamoto's opinion, were everywhere. So why was it that Yamamoto felt a strange curiosity and interest towards two idiots like them? Have they done anything particularly impressive? No, not really. Did they look extraordinary? No, they did not. Were they similar to other brats, in terms of childishness and idiocy? Yes, of course. So, how and why did Yamamoto take an interest in them?

Turning his head towards the door, Yamamoto frowned, making his whole face look even more creased then before. Earlier in the day, he had sent his lieutenant, Sasakibe Choujirou, to the school to help him observe the duo. By now, the specially arranged exam should be over already, but Sasakibe was still not back yet. After serving as Yamamoto's lieutenant for a number of centuries already, Sasakibe should know very well that Yamamoto was not a man with much patience. So where was he?

Minutes passed, and a man who wore a mantle over his _shihakusho_ suddenly burst into the office, with an excited look plastered onto his face.

"What's wrong with you?" asked Yamamoto almost immediately, for he had never seen Sasakibe behave in such a way before.

Yamamoto did not really have much in common with Sasakibe. Sasakibe was a man obsessed with the Western culture, whereas Yamamoto was an old-fashioned Japanese man who would prefer death to embracing the Western culture. Western food, black tea and fencing… Sasakibe adored them. Even the mantle that he always wore was also modeled after one worn by an Englishman he saw a while ago in the living world. Yamamoto, on the other hand, abhorred every single one of them. Perhaps he was simply too narrow-minded, but he could not understand how in the world Western food and black tea could be compared with Japanese food and green tea. And fencing? No, Yamamoto preferred Kendo more. As for that mantle, it was simply another piece of ridiculous fashion item. In Yamamoto's opinion, it was totally superfluous, and had no use at all. _It existed simply to disgrace the dignity of a man. The younger generations are getting worse and worse in their fashion sense_, Yamamoto always thought, and to date, in his view, the worst dressed person to ever exist in Soul Society was the brat in pink that he saw a few days ago.

However, as much as Sasakibe's lifestyle and likings differed from Yamamoto's, their working attitudes had always been similar. They were both serious and they both had an extremely strong sense of propriety. That was the reason why they were able to work with each other for so long despite their many differences. Bursting into a superior's office without knocking and with an excited look on his face was never quite the style of Sasakibe.

"They are impressive, those two kids!" gushed Sasakibe, "I've never seen rookies as good as them!"

"Oh? How so?"

"Well, for one, they did very well for the theory paper! Ukitake Jyuushirou ranked fifth! Kyouraku Shunsui ranked eighth!"

"So?" questioned Yamamoto, raising his eyebrows a little, "It's impressive, but they are not number ones."

"You can't put it that way, _taicho_!" answered Sasakibe immediately, in a tone that sounded almost offended. "According to the staff in school, while Kyouraku Shunsui visited Ukitake Jyuushirou every single day for the past week, they did not do anything but eat and play. Apparently, when one of the staff asked the Ukitake kid about it, he told him that it wouldn't be very fair to the other students if they were to use their extra time for studying, so the both of them decided to not study at all. Think about it, the Ukitake kid probably prepared for the originally slated exam, but since he was very ill days before, how well can his preparations be? As for the Kyouraku kid, with his notorious reputation as a lazy bum, I doubt he even prepared much at all. Seriously, they are geniuses! Geniuses, I say!"

Yamamoto surveyed Sasakibe. _Yes, to be able to make a man of few words talk so much in such an animated way, they are indeed impressive_, he thought.

"Oh! And when they were asked to try to create a ball of spirit energy, they were both able to create balls of energy around the size of a huge _wa-da-may-lan_. That's bigger than all the other students!"

Yamamoto had absolutely no idea what Sasakibe's new self-learnt English word '_wa-da-may-lan_' was, but was able to make out the size of it after Sasakibe indicated it with his hands.

"Their skills with the swords were impressive too! They are totally unlike the usual rookies who goofed around with swords as though they are merely sticks. Honestly, they ought to be ranked first! I am very impressed, sir, very impressed! The staff present at the exam was very impressed too. The kids have a lot of potential, don't you think?" asked Sasakibe, obviously expecting Yamamoto to agree with him.

Yamamoto said nothing but gave a low grunt as his response.

"It's a pity though. Their shortcomings might cause them to be unable to maximize their full potentials. Come to think of it, with their abilities, they will definitely be in the Elite Class. You will be teaching Zanjutsu in that class, won't you, Yamamoto-taicho?"

"I'm afraid so," mumbled Yamamoto, wincing uncomfortably at the thought of it.

* * *

Jyuushirou was in high spirits. It was his first day in school, and surprisingly, he felt perfectly well and fit. Grinning cheerfully at everybody looking his way, Jyuushirou made his way to his dormitory room, completely oblivious of the stunned looks that everybody were giving him. They were all amazed, for the fragile-looking Jyuushirou was dragging behind him (with the aid of a long piece of rope) a ridiculously gigantic and bulky bag of things wrapped up in a large and tattered piece of cloth. With his posture still upright and his brisk footsteps, he looked completely unaffected by the seemingly heavy load.

After a relatively long walk, he finally found his dormitory room. Sliding open the door, Jyuushirou's eyes widened slightly in amazement. The room was enormous. He entered the room and started walking around it, unknowingly dragging his huge baggage along behind him. It was around six times the size of his room back home. _But I guess it should be big_, thought Jyuushirou, _since each dormitory room is supposed to be shared between six students._

However, since his batch was the one and only batch in the school currently, each student was allowed to stay in one room. Jyuushirou would much prefer to stay with a group of students, but with his illness, it would be… inconvenient. With his illness in mind, Jyuushirou made a mental note to himself to consult the teachers about his accommodation during his later years in the school.

The room was practically empty, save for a huge wardrobe and a closet situated in a corner of the room. Deciding that he should start unpacking, he walked towards the only two pieces of furniture in the room, once again dragging his massive baggage along. He first opened the closet and found six futons already folded and stored inside, and so he closed it and opened the wardrobe instead. Finally turning his attention towards his baggage, he unwrapped the contents. He only had a few sets of clothing to be stored into a wardrobe that was originally meant for the use of six people, but it did not matter, for he had many other things that needed storage too. What had helped created the bulk was a giant pile of snacks and candies given to him by his kind neighbours. Upon hearing that he had been accepted into the Shinigami Academy a few days ago, all his neighbours chipped in money to buy a huge pile of Jyuushirou's favourite snacks and candies. Smiling gratefully, Jyuushirou started shoving the snacks and candies merrily into the wardrobe. Fifteen minutes later, an unstable mountain of snacks and candies was created in it. As he was about to close the doors of the wardrobe, a packet of candies fell out of it. Jyuushirou picked it up and once again toss the packet carelessly into the wardrobe, but the packet of candies hit the mountain of snacks and candies, causing the pile to collapse and most of the snacks and candies to fall out of the wardrobe. Sighing exasperatedly, Jyuushirou started shoving them into the wardrobe again, only to have them all dropped out of the wardrobe once again. It took another fifteen minutes for Jyuushirou to finally stabilise his 'mountain'.

It was lucky that he had arrived at the school an hour early with the intention of greeting his next-door neighbour. Even after taking such a long time to 'unpack', he still managed to have around twenty minutes to spare, and so he decided to go with his intended plan.

* * *

Shunsui was in his dormitory room feeling extremely depressed and sulky when somebody knocked his door. He ignored the person, but the knockings persisted. Shunsui covered his ears with his hands, determined to ignore the irritating pest no matter what. That was, until a familiar voice called out, "Excuse me. Is anybody in there?"

_That voice!_ Shunsui recognised it immediately! _It's Jyuu-Jyuu!_

Hurrying to the door, Shunsui opened it and flung his arms around his visitor. "Jyuu-Jyuu!" he cried, hugging his relatively new friend tightly.

"Huh? Kyouraku?" an astounded Jyuushirou answered him. "What are you doing? Let go of me before other students get the wrong idea!"

"Let them get the wrong idea! I am upset!"

Jyuushirou was a loyal friend indeed. Upon hearing that, he completely forgot about the dubious-looking hug. With a voice filled with concern, Jyuushirou inquired hurriedly, "Why? What happened?"

"Mutsuki-baachan!" Shunsui exclaimed, somewhat agitatedly. "She refused to let me bring my collection of pink clothes and stash of _sake_ to school. Confiscated everything! What shall I do? Today is the first day of school!"- He emphasised the word 'school' with as much contempt as possible - "And as though attending school is not already bad enough, I actually have to come to school without my precious collection of pink clothes and without even a single drop of _sake_! Such cruelty! Look at this, Jyuu! Look at this disgusting-looking school uniform! See the colours that we are wearing? White and blue! It's BLUE! Blue is not sexy at all! How am I supposed to charm the girls if I always look - well, blue?"

"There, there," said Jyuushirou to Shunsui after listening to Shunsui's lamentations, sounding as though he was comforting a young crying kid and not a 180 years old man, "don't be upset anymore. Tell you what, Kyouraku. I can't afford any _sake_ right now, but after we graduate and become shinigamis, I'll treat you to a lifetime of sake. As much as you like! What do you think of it?"

"Really?"

"Of course!" assured Jyuushirou. "And forget about your pink clothes, Kyouraku! I'm sure you're charming enough."

And then, like a child who had been successfully comforted by an adult, a grin appeared slowly (and rather creepily) on Shunsui's face.

That was one thing that he liked about Ukitake Jyuushirou. Unlike other people, his new best friend would never dismiss his silly tantrums as nonsense (although Shunsui suspected that it was because Jyuushirou had figured out that that was the trick to get Shunsui to cease his tantrums).

* * *

First-year students of the Shinigami Academy had to take four subjects: _Shinigami Knowledge_, _Kidou_ (Demon Path), _Hakuda and Hohou_ (Hand-to-hand Combat and Agility), and _Zanjutsu_ (Swordmanship).

_Shinigami Knowledge_ was a subject taken only in the first year of the course and was meant to teach the students all 'general Shinigami knowledge' that they should know as shinigamis, such as the duties of shinigamis, the different types of armies, the Central 46 Chambers and etc. The other three subjects, _Kidou_, _Hakuda and Hohou_, and _Zanjutsu_, trained the students in the four combat forms of shinigamis, preparing them for their future career as shinigamis.

Shunsui and Jyuushirou were in the Elite Class, a class rumoured to be taught by the elites of the shinigami community. The Elite Class was made up of the top forty students of the batch based on their results from the entrance exam. As the top forty students, they were seen as having the highest chance of becoming elites themselves, and therefore the Elite Class was the only class honoured enough to be taught by very prominent Shinigamis.

The rumours turned out to be true, but by the end of their first day, the so-called elite teachers had successfully convinced both Shunsui and Jyuushirou that all elite shinigamis were eccentric people; hence causing the both of them to ponder whether becoming an elite was really a good and healthy thing. Shunsui took only a minute to convince himself that becoming an elite would cause damage to both the body and mind, and decided for both Jyuushirou (in his concern for his best friend) and himself that the both of them should never become elites. Upon hearing Shunsui's opinion, Jyuushirou simply smirked and cheekily remarked, "Oh Kyouraku, I'm sure you, more than anyone, would become an elite!" Shunsui was left horrorstruck.

* * *

Their first class of the day was _Shinigami Knowledge_, a class taken together by the whole batch of students in a huge lecture hall. It was taught by a middle-aged teacher around four thousand years old named Nakazawa Kouji. He was a short and plump person, but despite his age and size, he had a bouncy and energetic nature. He bounced like a ball (this phrase should be taken literally) around the room, happily telling them how excited he was, and how fascinating he thought the shinigami world was. Then, he started to shoot bits of random trivia about Shinigamis, Seireitei and Soul Society at the students, jumping (again, literally) from one student to the next. Shunsui fell asleep just ten minutes after the class started, obviously not interested in things like how many Shinigamis there were to date, how many people were living in Rukongai and how big Seireitei was. Jyuushirou tried desperately to nudge him awake but to no avail. Unfortunately, it did not take Nakazawa-sensei long to hear the loud snores of Shunsui, and he bounced all the way up to the table directly behind where Shunsui was seated, and slapped (with rather great force) the back of Shunsui merrily to wake him up. In Jyuushirou's opinion, the first class of the day was… bizarre.

The second class was _Kidou_. This time round taught by a very pretty female teacher with long blue hair and jade green eyes named Mizuno Tamae who did not seemed much older than the students themselves. Unlike Nakazawa-sensei, Mizuno-sensei was not a full-time sensei. She was the lieutenant of the sixth division of Gotei Thirteen, and only taught the Elite Class. She also completely differed from Nakazawa-sensei in character. She was extremely serious and withdrawn, and talked in such an extremely soft voice that it was a miracle that the students were actually able to hang on to her every word. When she first introduced herself as a lieutenant, a few students snorted loudly in disbelief. However, Mizuno-sensei merely raised an eyebrow a little and told them in a very soft but icy tone, "Age does not affect power, and neither does the way I talk affect my ability to command people. Stupidity, on the other hand, does." The students who snorted earlier did not make a single sound anymore throughout the whole class period, and from what Jyuushirou could tell, were also most likely never going to dare utter a single word again in all of Mizuno-sensei's future lessons. Incidentally, Jyuushirou also interestingly noted that not only was Mizuno-sensei's character immensely dissimilar to Nakazawa-sensei's, even Shunsui's attitude was poles apart from his attitude during Nakazawa-sensei's class. When Mizuno-sensei first walked into the Kidou field, Shunsui suddenly sat up straight and alert, surprising Jyuushirou a little. "Ooh… A really pretty _sensei_! Lucky!" he said gleefully to Jyuushirou. When Mizuno-sensei introduced herself as a lieutenant, he went, "Ooh! A capable girl! I love capable girls! Especially a soft-spoken one!" After Mizuno-sensei gave her small little icy lecture, Shunsui nodded his head enthusiastically and whispered excitedly to a very amused Jyuushirou, "Mizuno-sensei and I, we share the same opinion!"

The third class was the _Hakuda and Hohou_ class. It was in this class that Shunsui could not help but noticed that a group of girls positioned on the left of Jyuushirou was seating quite a distance away from him, leaving a three-person gap in between them. Every now and then, they would look uncomfortably at Jyuushirou, who seemed blissfully unaware of everything. It was obvious to Shunsui. The girls had saw Jyuushirou's Consumption attack during the original entrance exam day, and they were afraid. Shunsui frowned, but said nothing, as he did not want to bring his best friend's attention to the girls. However, Jyuushirou noticed his expression almost immediately. Shunsui then attempted to rearrange his face into a look of tiredness, but when he saw Jyuushirou gave him a small reassuring smile and a look that clearly said, _Don't worry, I'm used to it_, he gave up his meaningless attempt. Jyuushirou had already noticed the girls. Shunsui then decided that, as Jyuushirou's best friend, he should say something (preferably something cool or touching) to comfort him (whether Jyuushirou needed it or not). But the teacher for the class, much to the annoyance of Shunsui, coincidentally chose that particular moment to enter the classroom - and not in a subtle manner too, he busted into the classroom loudly. "My name is Arisada Yuuji, my dears!" the sleek and slender looking man boomed deafeningly at the students affectionately, shocking all forty of the students with his randomness. He then twirled his hand rather femininely and gave the students an extremely low bow that had obviously exceeded ninety degrees. If Jyuushirou thought that Nakazawa-sensei was bizarre, Shunsui was not sure how this Arisada could be described as. To Shunsui's disgust, Arisada-sensei, for some unknown reason, showed an apparent interest in him throughout the whole lesson, going as far as to constantly ask him some extremely personal questions every now and then. Grimacing, Shunsui turned his attention to Jyuushirou, who, in his attempt to stifle his laughter with his two hands, had been making a strange strangling sound throughout the lesson.

"What are you laughing about?" snapped Shunsui irritably at him. "That guy was appalling!"

"I thought he reminded me a little of you," his friend replied, no longer attempting to suppress his laughter.

"You WHAT?" exclaimed Shunsui with a look of extreme horror. "Is he as manly as me? IS HE?"

"Okay, okay, I get it." Jyuushirou responded, patting Shunsui on the back sympathetically while still chuckling away, "Don't get so worked up. You are macho, alright? Very macho."

Perhaps it was due to that comment that Jyuushirou made, or perhaps it was because Jyuushirou looked particularly handsome when he was laughing, but by the end of the lesson, Shunsui noticed that the three-person gap between Jyuushirou and the group of girls had somehow drastically become a one-person gap, and he was quite sure that his best friend did not move from his position at all.

* * *

The last class of the day was the class that almost everybody in the elite class was excited about- the _zanjutsu_ class, taught by the famous Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni, the current captain of the tenth division of the Gotei Thirteen, and a man who was tipped to be the next General-Captain. Jyuushirou and Shunsui had already seen the famed shinigami before - on the day of the original entrance exam. It was that grumpy old man.

"I'm Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni," stated the old man simply, the moment he walked in. And, that was it. That was the great Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni's self-introduction to the students. The next thing he did was to immediately launch into an introduction of Zanjutsu.

"To put things simply, _Zanjutsu_ is the technique of using a zanpakutou and its abilities to combat –"

_What a great way to spend my time_, thought Shunsui sarcastically to himself, _listening to an old man_. Next to him, Jyuushirou was seating upright and alert, listening attentively to the old man's speech. _The pretty boy's too serious_, Shunsui continued inwardly, _I'm sure he already knows this nonsense._

And so, determined to stop his best friend from wasting his time, Shunsui set to work disturbing him. "Hey, hey… Ukiki!" he started, tugging one of Jyuushirou's sleeves.

"Shh…" his friend replied, his eyes staring fixedly at Yamamoto.

Shunsui did not give up though. He might not have known Jyuushirou for long, but with just around a week's worth of interaction with him, he had already observed that while his best friend's only imperfection seemed to be his weak health, that was not really so. Jyuushirou had two more flaws - one was his tendency to hesitate; the other was his tendency to get distracted easily. His hesitation was, in Shunsui's opinion, due to his kind nature. Jyuushirou cared too much for the people around him, and in his attempts to find ways to avoiding the hurting of the innocent or the people he cared about, he tended to hesitate in his decisions and actions at times. The latter could be attributed to the fact that Jyuushirou was born into this world, not only financially poor, but also burdened by his sickly body. He had nothing, but he was good-natured, and so he appreciated everything around him. Regardless of how insignificant they are, he treasured them, and because of that, anything could easily get him curious, interested, and then, distracted.

"Uki-chan… Listen to me…" continued Shunsui in a whiny tone, "I'm curious about something."

"Hmm?" mumbled Jyuushirou, with his attention still focused on Yamamoto, whose speech had somehow already dwelled from the topic of kendo techniques to 'anticipating the moves of your enemies'.

"What are we suppose to address this sensei as? His name is reeeeeeaaallly long… Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni…."

Looking as though he had just been reminded of something, Jyuushirou finally turned his eyes away from Yamamoto to look at Shunsui. "You're right!" he answered thoughtfully, his mind now obviously more interested in Shunsui's topic instead, "What are we suppose to call him?"

"YOU TWO OVER THERE!" came a loud and stern voice suddenly from the middle of the room, making the both of them jumped a little. Ah… Shunsui thought immediately to himself. _Alas… We're caught._

"What was I talking about?" Yamamoto asked, with an air of obvious annoyance.

_Hmm… What was it just now?_ Shunsui wondered idly to himself. _Wasn't it something about enemies? Ah well, I wasn't paying attention… Jyuu-chan should know._

And he was right.

"You were telling us that, while swordmanship and zanpakutou skills are very important to a shinigami, they are totally useless if one does not have the ability to anticipate and counter the moves of the enemy," answered Jyuushirou calmly.

_There you go… I know I can count on Shirou-chan!_

"Indeed…" said Yamamoto with his eyebrow twitching slightly, "A shinigami who is unable to anticipate the moves of his enemy is like a cow waiting to be butchered. Would the both of you like to help me with a small demonstration to the class?"

Ah… What a formidable old man… Trying to make us embarrass ourselves in front of everybody eh? I'd better give Jyuu-Jyuu some encouragement.

And as Jyuushirou and Shunsui stood up, Shunsui whispered to Jyuushirou, "Hey, Jyuu! Whoever manages to hit the old man will be treated to lunch tomorrow."

"Huh? Hit him? Are you sure?"

"Don't worry about his old age! He's the next General-Captain after all!"

"That is actually what I was concerned about. Well, what's for lunch tomorrow?"

"No idea. Ohagi?"

"Okay, deal."

* * *

As the two brats readied themselves for the demonstration, Yamamoto studied them. _This one's not too bad_, he thought, looking at Ukitake Jyuushirou, _at least he did listen_. Turning to Kyouraku Shunsui, he frowned. _This one's no good._

Kyouraku Shunsui started first. With a slight amused smile on his face and a playful glint in his eyes, he charged straight at Yamamoto. _Too simple_, judged Yamamoto, _he's trying to stab my chest._

Yamamoto tilted his upper body to his right a little and then easily shoved Kyouraku Shunsui aside with his staff

Ukitake Jyuushirou followed soon after, jumping a little to aim a slash (or a whack, since he was using a wooden sword) at the shoulder on the side of Yamamoto's staff-holding arm. Yamamoto twisted a little, and lifted his staff away. The boy missed his target, landing on one foot instead. As he tried desperately to regain his balance on his one foot, Yamamoto took a step forward and poked Ukitake Jyuushirou near his hips (without even looking) with the staff, and the boy collapsed onto the ground comically.

Chuckling away, the two boys on the ground slowly stood up again. Kyouraku Shunsui, with the amused look still on his face turned to his friend and said, "Hey Jyuu, I guess we had just been butchered."

His friend laughed. Then, turning to face his friend himself, Ukitake Jyuushirou asked, "Kyouraku, want to try again?"

Yamamoto was not sure what Kyouraku Shunsui saw on the face of his white-haired friend, but the amused look on that Kyouraku brat's face slowly faded, and an inspired and serious look replaced it. The amused smile also somehow transformed into a little smile that looked… understanding. This look of Kyouraku Shunsui… Yamamoto had seen before… The intriguing serious nature hidden beneath a flippant and flamboyant exterior...

"Of course." Kyouraku replied. "You don't mind do you, Yama-ji?"

Yamamoto did not had time to scowl at his new nickname, for at that moment, Ukitake Jyuushirou had also turned to him and was grinning at him, and it was then, that Yamamoto realised what Kyouraku Shunshui saw. A pair of captivating eyes filled with determination. It was that simple a look, but somehow it was able to capture the attention of not only Yamamoto, but also the rest of the students. Somehow, the scene of Ukitake Jyuushirou standing there with a pair of determined-looking eyes looked… strangely touching… And somehow, with just that pair of eyes, Ukitake Jyuushirou became the object of attention.

_This child has a nice pair of eyes_, thought Yamamoto, _and Kyouraku Shunsui… He's not simple._

Yamamoto gave a slight nod. "I don't mind," he said, "come at me at the same time this time round."

And once again, Kyouraku Shunsui and Ukitake Jyuushirou got into positions again. Giving each other a quick glance, the both of them charged at Yamamoto at the same time. Yamamoto took a few steps back. Ukitake Jyuushirou then attacked first by doing what his friend tried to do earlier - stabbing the chest (or rather, jabbing using the wooden sword). Yamamoto then fenced off the attack using his staff, but was almost taken by surprise, when Kyouraku Shunsui jumped at him at the exact same time, aiming at his shoulder. Yamamoto only dodged just in time by taking a step back. However, Kyouraku's slash turned into a horizontal swipe in his direction, and at the same time, Ukitake Jyuushirou was already charging at him, about to stab him straight in the heart….

… Yamamoto shunpo-ed out of their way.

The two young men halted in their movements. Their target was gone.

It was not deliberate. Yamamoto had instinctively shunpo-ed.

"Hey! That's not fair, Yama-ji!" chided Kyouraku Shunsui, as he whipped around to look at Yamamoto.

Making a grunting sound, Yamamoto then answered, "This is a demonstration to show you all the importance of anticipating the attacks of your enemies, not a kiddie match between the both of you and me. Am I supposed to just stand there and allow the both of you to hit me?"

Scowling at him, Kyouraku Shunsui murmured something that sounded vaguely like "Old people and their many reasons and excuses…" while Ukitake Jyuushirou merely chuckled and patted his friend's back.

_I am right_, Yamamoto assured himself.

"Seat down now, I need to continue my lesson," he then said. "By the way," muttered Yamamoto as he turned away from them, "the both of you… were not too bad…."

**Author's Notes: Er-hem… There are some things that I want to clarify about. Ahahaha…**

**1) Sasakibe and his mantle and his Western Culture obsession are canon. They are stated in the Bleach Karaburi Bootleg. So is his contrast with our dear Yamamoto-sama.**

**2) As I wrote this chapter, I was thinking about something. If I did not remember wrongly, I read somewhere that Renji belongs to the 2666th batch of Shinigami Academy graduates. Byakuya found Rukia around 50 years prior to the current Bleach storyline. Then in that case, this story should take place at around 2716 years prior to the main Bleach storyline. I'm really weak with timelines, so I am very confused about this. Do civilised people exist 2716 years ago? What era is this period supposed to be in ancient Japan? I tried doing some research and came up with this period named Yayoi or something. Do kimonos and hakamas exist in this period of time? Someone please enlighten me!**

**3) 'Wa-da-may-lan' is actually watermelon. Actually, the word 'watermelon' only first appeared in the English dictionary in 1615 and so 2000 years ago, Sasakibe shouldn't know anything about a watermelon. Furthermore, the chance of Sasakibe meeting an Englishman more than 2000 years ago is actually very slim. He probably only got influenced by the Western culture a few hundred years ago. However, a Sasakibe who is not western-obsessed is not very fun to write about (he'd just be a boring version of Yama-ji), so I shall ignore all logic and timelines.**

**4) I wonder if a watermelon is too small a spirit energy ball for our heroes? I almost wanted to write 'cart wheel' instead but decided that that's way too big and exaggerated to be true. Haha… And I wanted to give Sasakibe a word to show off about. 'Car-to vi-lu' doesn't sound as good as 'wa-da-may-lan'.**

**5) Yama-ji started out as just Jyuu and Shuns' zanjutsu teacher, but his relationship with them will become even deeper in the future.**

**6) In this story, when the Shinigami Academy was first created, not all teachers are full-time teachers as Yamamoto could not get many shinigamis to dedicate themselves completely to teaching in such a short time. This will change in the future.**

**7) The first demonstration fight is based on a scene from one of the endings of the the Bleach anime featuring the First Division, and the song 'Houkiboshi'.**


	5. Without Him

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: Yes, you're not seeing things. A new update is here! Once again, I apologise for breaking my promise. Now that I'm finally free (for a couple of months), I'll try my best to update regularly (hopefully, weekly.) Please, please, please forgive me and continue to support this fan fiction! This chapter will be focusing on our dearest Shun-chan, and his typical day in school when Jyuu-chan is sick. By the way, I loved Bleach Chapter 335 Chimaera Chord- it was filled with awesome sexiness, don't you all think? I can't wait for the next chapter (which should be coming out very soon! Yay!)_

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

**Chapter Five- Without Him**

Six months had passed since the first day of school. Once again, as part of their daily routine in school, the students of the Shinigami Academy were sitting in the large lecture hall, listening to their _Shinigami Knowledge_ teacher Nakazawa-sensei talk about the history of Soul Society. To the students, it was difficult to understand how the history of Soul Society was important to them. After all, to them, Soul Society did not have much history worth talking about before the awe-inspiring Yamamoto-Genryuusai Shigekuni came along one day with his ideals, beliefs and superior skills. Before him, there was absolutely nothing and nobody interesting. Wars? None. There were many fights and battles between Shinigamis and Hollows, but none aggravated enough to be called wars. Ideals? None (unless you count those feeble attempts to establish one). Most Shinigamis treated Hollow hunting as a mere game. Instead of purifying them, they had them brought back to Soul Society for shows. They threw them into deep pits and had them kill each other while they applauded and cheered madly as they watched. The Shinigamis were no more than a bunch of psychopaths who thought that they had the natural right to be so. Notable people? None; well, at least there were none that the students particularly cared about except for Yamamoto, for Yamamoto was the one who made the modern history of Soul Society interesting.

Yamamoto was the one who came up to the Shinigamis preaching world justice. He was the one who convinced most of the Shinigamis that they should kill only for the sake of world justice and not for game. It was Yamamoto's superior talent that contributed to the internal conflicts (albeit it was really not his fault.) Jealous men conspired with each other to plot against Yamamoto, only to end up killing each other due to their own madness. It was also Yamamoto's superior powers that inspired resistance from the Hollows. They recognised Yamamoto's powers, and decided that in order to survive, they had to become stronger. So really, Soul Society was all about Yamamoto. However, the students had seen and known Yamamoto in person. Therefore, it was extremely difficult for them to view Yamamoto as a part of history when he was still well and alive, and had a nasty habit of strolling along the Academy corridors in his free time to catch people with untidy uniforms and then give them lectures that average a duration of at least half an hour. Yes, after six months with Yamamoto the old man, even the great Yamamoto represented boredom to them. In other words, _Shinigami Knowledge_ was so boring that even the bouncy and ever-cheerful Nakazawa Kouji-sensei could not save it. Sure, it was amusing to watch him bounce up and down, talking happily about the most mundane topics as though nothing could be even more fascinating than them. It was amusing indeed, but only for the first few times. So there you have it: one whole batch of students sitting in the large lecture hall, giving big and loud yawns every now and then, but unable to take their greatly desired naps because Nakazawa-sensei kept bouncing up to them to - well, in Nakazawa-sensei's words - "pound the ability to pay attention into them".

Only one person was spared from the torture - Kyouraku Shunsui.

One of the students in the lecture hall, Katsumi Ryu, turned his head to focus his tired eyes on Kyouraku Shunsui. _Ah, the irony_, he thought.

Kyouraku Shunsui was listening attentively to Nakazawa-sensei, and carefully taking down notes on the "glorious" history of Soul Society. Ryu was in the Elite Class, so he shared all his classes with Shunsui. Now that he had seen Shunsui do the same thing frequently for the past six months, it was no longer as fascinating anymore. When he first saw Shunsui do it for the first time however, it was shocking (_actually, the word "shocking" is almost an understatement_, Ryu corrected himself). The first time Shunsui did it, he became the topic of the week (Shunsui was delighted of course, to be the leading man in discussion. He loved the attention.) Everybody could not believe their eyes. The notoriously lazy Kyouraku Shunsui who seemed to care about nothing but women, sake and naps turned into a hardworking student, who was twice more attentive and diligent than the rest of them. How could it have happened? The answer was very soon clear to them. It was because his white-haired best friend, Ukitake Jyuushirou, was sick and unable to attend lessons. Shunsui was taking notes for his friend. Since then, it became the usual practice: Ukitake Jyuushirou would fall sick four out of the seven days of the week, and Kyouraku Shunsui would listen in class and take down notes for all the four out of seven days.

_As ridiculous as it sounds_, Ryu observed, _Kyouraku is the only person in class who is able to withstand the overwhelming drowsiness effect of Nakazawa-sensei's lecture. Well, at least for the four out of seven days. If Ukitake is around, Kyouraku snores louder than any one of us._

In_ Kidou_ class, Ryu continued to observe Shunsui. There was no doubt that _Kidou_ class was Shunsui's favourite class, and the only class that Shunsui would never fall asleep in. It was easy to see why, of course. Despite her rather frightening coolness, the _Kidou_ teacher, Mizuno Tamae-sensei, was a pretty little thing no doubt. With that long lovely blue hair, that enchanting jade-green eyes, and that grace she carried herself with even when she was demonstrating _kidou_ spells, she was rather mesmerising. The eyes of the males in the class always followed her every move; the most obvious being those of Kyouraku Shunsui obviously. When Jyuushirou was present for class, Shunsui would turn back into the commonly known Shunsui. Throughout the lesson, Shunsui would be following Mizuno-sensei with his eyes, winking and grinning at every chance he gets. As though the overdone flirting was not enough, he bobbed up and down where he usually sits, raising both his arms to answer whatever questions there were just so that he could capture the attention of Mizuno-sensei and impress her. Whenever Mizuno-sensei needed somebody to help with the demonstrations, Shunsui would be the most enthusiastic one to help. After the class, it was a usual sight to see Jyuushirou drag Shunsui out of the classroom in exasperation to prevent Shunsui from pestering Mizuno-sensei about going out on a date with him ("Just once, my dear Tama-chan, just once! Just one date with me and you'll know paradise!" he once said, with what he obviously thought was a seductive voice and what others scathingly described as growls) and information about himself ("My favourite colour is usually rose pink, but my favourite colour today is the colour of your eyes!") He annoyed the hell out of the boys of the class, and amused his best friend Jyuushirou to no end.

However, on days like this when Jyuushirou was sick and he had to take notes, Shunsui would turn into an entirely different person. There was none of those irritating bobbing up and down; there was no ridiculous waving of arms and loud shouts. He took his notes in silence, observed the demonstrations with interest, and raised his hands only to ask complex questions regarding kidou that he wanted to include in his notes. On days like this, instead of Shunsui eyeing Mizuno-sensei, it would actually be Mizuno-sensei's turn to look at Shunsui with a slight hint of curiosity in her usually cold jaded eyes. Of course, this annoyed the hell out of the boys in the class too. What annoyed them even more was that every time Jyuushirou was fit enough to return to classes, Shunsui would put on a smug look and tell Jyuushirou loudly about it in front of them all. It seemed as though he enjoyed pissing his fellow male classmates off.

Everybody would have thought that without Jyuushirou around to drag him away from Mizuno-sensei, Shunsui would jump at the chance to ask Mizuno-sensei out. No, that was surprisingly not the case. On times like this, when the class ends, Shunsui would promptly stand up and leave to have lunch with his best friend instead.

* * *

With his books in one arm and the lunch boxes that he had just bought in his other, Shunsui walked briskly to the sick-room to meet Jyuushirou. He was not walking briskly because he was afraid that their lunches were going to turn cold any time soon. He was also not walking quickly because he was worried that Jyuushirou would die from starvation due to his inability to withstand hunger. In fact, he was walking quickly in order to save his best friend from getting murdered by his fan girls before his time was up. Although the rest of the school still avoided Jyuushirou like a plague due to the incident that had occurred during the entrance exam (much to Shunsui's annoyance), Jyuushirou had already gained solid popularity within the Elite Class. Well, who from the Elite Class could possibly forget Jyuushirou from the first _zanjutsu_ demonstration with old Yama-jii? The girls from the class obviously could not, and within just a few months, they had Jyuushirou elevated from the position of the class plague to that of the class prince.

When he reached the entrance of the sick-room, the scene was just as he had expected. It was just like always: the big group of loyal fan girls were surrounding Jyuushirou's bed, all of them fighting with each other for the right to force-feed Jyuushirou. The patient on the bed was entirely hidden from Shunsui's view by the large group of girls. Shunsui knew that Jyuushirou, being the gentleman as he was, always tries his best to satisfy the demands of all his crazy fan girls; but the fan girls, being as crazy as they were, were very difficult to satisfy. Just as Shunsui entered the room, he heard another quarrel between Jyuushirou's fan girls again.

"Here, Jyuushirou-kun!" came a nauseously girly voice that made even Shunsui cringe, "say 'Ahhhh'…"

"Umm… No, I don't want to say 'Ah', Kyoda-san. Can't I just eat it without making any noise?" responded a voice that obviously belonged to Jyuushirou.

"No, no, you must say 'Ahhh', Jyuushirou-kun!" responded the same sickeningly girly voice that made Shunsui cringe in disgust again. "It's more romantic this way!"

"Stop it, Kyoda!" came another female voice, this one less disgusting, but sounded much snobbier instead. "Don't you see? Jyuushirou-dono doesn't want to be romantic with _you_! Go away! Here, Jyuushirou-dono, have a bite from my lunchbox instead! I had somebody from my manor smuggle this in for me! This is made of the most premium crabmeat!"

"Shut it, Yoshino! You don't know anything!" replied the sickening voice. "It's not true, right? Jyuushirou-kuuuuunnnn….. You want to romance with me, don't you?" the voice whined.

Yes, it was always something disgusting like this that leaves poor Jyuushirou speechless and exasperated. There was once, Shunsui was late because he was stuck in the lunch queue for a long period of time. By the time he arrived, the individual quarrels had extended to a group quarrel, and the girls were starting to pull each others' hair and scratch each others' arms. Jyuushirou, the patient in the sick-room, was trying in vain to break them apart. Shunsui had to virtually drag Jyuushirou out of the mess.

_It is amazing how extreme these fan girls could get_, Shunsui always thought, _and what disgusting words they say._

As usual, Shunsui stepped in to put a stop to the girls' antics before they turn into chaos like last time. "Alright, alright darlings," he cried out to them, clapping his hands together thrice to further capture their attention, "visiting time's over! Please leave now."

"Kyouraku!" exclaimed Jyuushirou's voice, sounding extremely relieved that he did not have to answer the Kyoda girl's question.

And as usual, the girls would not leave without a fight. "Why is it that YOU always get to stay?" demanded one of them, like always. A few "yeah" and "why" echoed throughout the room.

"Well, sweeties", replied Shunsui calmly, "as I've been telling you for quite a while already, I get to stay because I am your prince's best friend and your prince wants to have lunch with me. You ladies know the rules. You girls can stay only if all of you kindly bestow me a kiss and promise to feed me as well. So, how is it? Want to have fun together, or would you all kindly prefer to leave? By the way, I prefer kisses on the lips." And again, as usual, Shunsui puckered his lips to show that he was not kidding about the rules.

It hurts Shunsui a little, but the girls always leave.

**Author's Notes: Okay, this chapter is shorter than usual. I actually have slightly more to write, but I think if I continue to write, the chapter will drag out too much and end up getting too boring. This seemed like a good place to cut off, so I ended the chapter here. I hope it does not seem like an abrupt ending. I'll use the remaining to start on my next chapter instead. As I've mentioned earlier, I wanted to use this chapter to show a typical school day for Shunsui when Jyuushirou is sick. I am not quite done yet, so please look forward to the next chapter. Initially, I wanted next week's focus to be on Jyuushirou, but if I end up writing too much for 'Shunsui's typical school day when Jyuushirou is sick' in the next chapter, next week's focus will still be on Shunsui.**

**I hope this chapter is not too boring for you guys. After such a long hiatus (sorry), I had a little trouble getting back to writing a story again. Please review! Thanks for your support!**


	6. The Man Who Would Rather Dance

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: This chapter took me more than a week. Sorry. As usual, I ended up working on the chapter much longer than I thought I would. I'm glad that you guys found the previous chapter not boring. Once again, I enjoyed reading the reviews. In fact, what some of you mentioned in the reviews gave me an idea for the future chapters. I'm not going to say what though. You'll see in the future. Some of you were probably not able to post a review for the previous chapter because you had posted a review for my hiatus notice. Sorry about that. Since this is my first time writing a fan fiction, I didn't really know that works that way. I was quite under the impression that deleting the hiatus notice would also delete all the related reviews too. Apparently, it doesn't work like that. Haha. Ah well, it doesn't really matter. Don't worry too much about it. Just help me to review the next time you can, okay? :D Thanks to all those people who reviewed the chapter. Special thanks to reviewers who had been readers since before the hiatus- thank you for continuing to support WOLC. A big thank you to Dark Magician Girl KKC for sending me a long private message review. It was extremely delightful to read!_

_Okay, without further ado, I shall present you the next chapter of WOLC. I hope you enjoy it!_

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

**Chapter Six- The Man Who Would Rather Dance**

It took more than ten minutes and millions of complains before the last of the reluctant and sulky girls finally left the room to leave the two best friends alone - and in peace. Chuckling lightly, Shunsui passed Jyuushirou one of the lunch boxes that he had just bought, which Jyuushirou accepted eagerly. "Woah... Eager, aren't you?" teased Shunsui, "You don't really need the lunch! Haven't you just had, umm, what's that? Ah... Yes... Premium crabmeat purposely smuggled into the school just for you, my Highness?" He laughed a little at his little joke - one that Jyuushirou obviously did not find funny, because his only response to Shunsui's joke was a sharp 'tsk'. "Well, my dear prince," continued Shunsui in a booming and dramatic voice, which was complemented by an excellent imitation of their _Hakudou and Hohou_ teacher, Arisada Yuuji's ridiculously low bow, "your loyal servant Shun-Shun had once again successfully rescued you from the clutches of the evil witches. How do you intend to reward me? Ah! I know! A harem of beauties would serve me just fine. But please do not give me that scary witch Kyoda-san of YOURS. She scares me." With that, he burst into total laughter.

"Oh, stop it," replied Jyuushirou in an annoyed tone as he shook his head in exasperation. "Thank goodness you came in time," he added thankfully. "Kyoda-san's question freaked me out a little. I didn't know what to say."

"Honestly, Jyuu, I've no idea what you're so freaked out about. They ask the same question ALL the time!" his best friend mockingly reasoned, still chuckling away. "Things like, 'Do you love me?'; 'Will you love me?'; and 'Can you please love me?' C'mon, they're all one and the same, just more and more desperate each time! Seriously, why can't they be more creative? They should've come to me! I'm the master of love after all!" Shunsui's comment successfully earned him a sharp glare from his best friend, but the glare only made him more gleeful.

Despite all the attention Jyuushirou was getting from the girls in their class, Shunsui was not jealous. Of course, if it were some other people, Shunsui would be. After all, it was inconceivable how a person like him, a man overflowing with charm and manliness, could possibly not have as big a fan club as some random and insignificant person. However, since the random but "not-insignificant" person was his best friend Ukitake Jyuushirou, the story was different. His white-haired best friend was the only person in the world that he would not be jealous of. He might harbour feelings of envy, yes, but definitely none of jealousy.

However, the temptation to annoy his best friend at every possible chance was simply too difficult to resist, and Shunsui was hardly one who would resist temptations. A very beautiful woman once told him that if he would end up looking like a fool regardless of whether he dance or simply stand around, he might as well dance. That was a principle of life that he had always kept close to both his heart and mind. Shunsui liked to apply the principle to everything in life, including temptations. If resisting temptations was going to make him feel like a fool, and succumbing to temptations was also going to make him feel like a fool, he might as well succumb to them. After all, temptations are always tempting, and if they are tempting, there must be something desirable about them.

"Hello, your friend's in trouble! Can you offer a more constructive advice instead?" criticised Jyuushirou, frowning slightly at Shunsui. "For example, how about offering me proper advice on how I can stop them from asking me all these... all these... disturbing questions - creative or not - again?"

This time round, it was Shunsui's turn to change his facial expression into a slight frown. Cocking his head slightly, he answered sarcastically, "Hmm... That is a difficult question indeed." He paused for a while to pretend to be in deep thoughts. "Well, here's one advice then. Tell them this: 'No, I do not want to romance with you. You are scary and disgusting.' How about it? This seems to me to be the most viable option! Don't you agree?"

Quite obviously and expectedly to Shunsui, Jyuushirou was not quite agreeable to his suggestion. What was unexpected however, was that his poor friend choked on his rice in alarm upon hearing his words, and ended up with a minor coughing fit. "Opps! Sorry. My bad," Shunsui mumbled, as he patted Jyuushirou lightly on the back. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Waving an arm carelessly, Jyuushirou answered, "Don't worry, I'll definitely survive." As he turned to look at Shunsui straight in the face however, the few creases in his forehead multiplied as his slight frown turned into a deep one. "That was not what I meant by proper advice though, Kyouraku," he told him sternly. "Which part of 'I do not want to romance with you' does not sound hurtful to you? Besides, what's with the scary and disgusting part?"

"Well, if you ask me, that is the most proper advice I have. Okay, look, take away the scary and disgusting part - that was a joke, although I dare say it was a rather realistic and truthful one - ouch! Don't throw the pillow at me! I'll confiscate it and leave you with none for tonight! Even a lazy person like me have seen enough of old Yama-jii's ultimate skill to know how to use it with ease!" Shunsui paused to throw the pillow back at Jyuushirou. "Anyway, as I was saying before you rudely interrupted me with a flying pillow - that is proper advice from me, Jyuu! I'm serious. I know you are kind and you do not want to say or do anything that will hurt people's feelings, but if you don't tell them that you feel uncomfortable, they'll never know."

"Well, I guess I'll just have to stay uncomfortable then."

"That is just plain stupid, Jyuu. You know that."

"I know that."

"And you'll rather be plain stupid, eh?"

"Yep."

"Well, just so you know, I know that too - that you'll rather be plain stupid than to utter anything that you deem as potentially hurtful. That's what I both like and hate about you."

"I know."

* * *

Silence ensued for a while as they consumed the food from their lunch boxes keenly. The both of them were extremely hungry. Of course, had Jyuushirou eagerly accepted the 'offerings' from his 'worshippers', he would not have been as hungry as his friend. Unfortunately, it was difficult to do so because his fan girls tend to make him lose his appetite most of the time (a feat that Jyuushirou used to think impossible). It was only with Shunsui could he eat in peace. Although Shunsui enjoyed fooling around, he would never serve Jyuushirou any 'unsafe' food. He knew well enough to not serve Jyuushirou food that might aggravate his illness (or health). And quite surprisingly, he often chooses the healthiest options possible, sometimes to Jyuushirou's disappointment - although Jyuushirou had no food that he disliked, he fancied many kinds of unhealthy food. Naturally, Shunsui knew Jyuushirou's favourite food very well, and often tries his best to obtain them for his friend. Extremely unhealthy food however, was an absolute no-no (during the sick days at least).

The silence was soon broken by Shunsui, when he looked up from his food and saw that Jyuushirou had stopped eating and was looking at him with a half-amused expression plastered onto his face. "What's wrong?" he asked.

"You," Jyuushirou answered simply.

Shunsui looked at his friend with a bemused look. "Meeeeeeee? Don't be ridiculous. There cannot possibly be anything wrong with meeee! I'm the epitome of perfection!" he exclaimed, taking care to emphasise the 'me's with an incredulous tone. "Are you getting feverish again, Jyuu-chan?" he continued, as he put down his chopsticks to slap his hand on Jyuushirou's forehead, "You're not making any sense."

"For the last fifteen minutes since we've started eating, you've been picking out all the black sesame seeds from your rice to put on mine. May I inquire as to the reason, Kyouraku?" Jyuushirou explained, with the amused glint still in his eyes.

"Ohhhhhh thaaaaat..." exclaimed Shunsui, as understanding dawned on his face. "You should've made yourself clear, silly. Oh, and why are you going all formal on me? You know I hate that."

"I know. That's why I do it," replied Jyuushirou with a smirk on his face. "Anyway, why are you picking out all the black sesame seeds? I thought you like the black sesame seeds?"

"I do. Mutsuki-baachan told me that they make the hair dark and shiny! Look at my beautiful hair! It's all daaarrkk and shiiiiiny! I figured that you'll need them more than me-" he gestured at Jyuushirou's white hair "- so I gave them all to you!"

It took Jyuushirou several seconds to digest his friend's latest silly joke, but once he processed it, he burst out laughing appreciatively. The response satisfied Shunsui well. It was exactly what he was trying to achieve: a laughter from the patient - the best medicine one could possibly give to a patient and one of the things in the world that the lazy Shunsui would always put in an effort to create. It was not too difficult to make his best friend laugh though. His best friend, more often than not, finds his jokes funny, even when most people did not. That was another reason for Shunsui to like Jyuushirou. "Kyouraku, you idiot!" chided Jyuushirou lightly. "And may I ask, what's wrong with my white hair? I've always liked my white hair a lot, you know?"

Putting on a well-rehearsed pout and a well-summoned childish tone, Shunsui continued his mission, "Well, _that's_ the prooobbblemmm... You look too cool. I'm convinced that that head of white hair of yours functions like a chick magnet. I shall get rid of it for the sake of all men!"

Laughing, Jyuushirou responded, "Well, you should've said so earlier. I can shave it all away if you want."

That sentence froze Shunsui for a second. "NO!" he cried loudly, the moment he recovered from it. "Don't be ridiculous!"

"Woah, chill it, Kyouraku. I was just kidding."

"That is too scary a notion for you to kid about, you idiot."

"..."

"Okay, Shiro-chan. I've changed my mind. Give me back my sesame seeds. Now."

Sometimes, the joke might not go according to plan.

* * *

After they had devoured their lunch, Shunsui grabbed a couple of books from his pile of books and threw it to Jyuushirou. It was part of a routine that they had been going through for nearly six months already. "Here you go, the notes for Shinigami Knowledge and Kidou." The moment Jyuushirou laid his hands on them, he opened and flipped through one of them eagerly. "Can't see why you're always so eager to read them. The coursework bores me to death." Shunsui commented with a dull voice.

"Hmm? Really?" muttered Jyuushirou, with most of his attention still focused on the flipping and quick reading. "I always find the notes a joy to read. I must say, up till now, I'm still utterly amazed and impressed by your excellent note-taking skills and elegant handwriting."

"You don't really need my notes though, do you? I'm sure your fan girls had been offering you their notes. _Here Jyuushirou-kuuuunnnn... Take my notes! I've decorated the whole book with hearts and your name!_ Really, I can just imagine them saying that."

"Well, they did. But honestly speaking, your notes are actually the best of them all! And by the way, you're not in the least bit wrong about their books being filled with hearts and my name. It scares me a little. Besides, as much as I appreciate their goodwill, I really do not want to accept anything more from them." Jyuushirou involuntarily shuddered at the thought of his obsessive fan girls. Finally tearing his eyes away from the notebooks, Jyuushirou looked at Shunsui gratefully. "Really, I can't thank you enough, Kyouraku! I know how much of a pain paying attention and taking notes is for you, and yet you take such meticulous and detailed notes for me. I'm really terribly sorry! If it's not for you, I would have to drag myself to class even when I'm seriously ill."

"Don't worry too much about it. You are the one taking the notes during your fit-days anyway," answered Shunsui with a grin, as he made his way to the door, "allowing me time to sleep. I thank you for that."

"Haha, very funny, Kyouraku. I'm sure you'll still have your sleep time even if I'm not taking notes for you," Jyuushirou said. "Are you leaving already?"

"Yep. It's almost time for that idiotic Arisada's class; and there's still Yama-jii's later. I hate their classes the most. Arisada's always asking me ridiculous questions and saying nonsensical things. Yama-jii's always picking on me. They're annoying! Oh, by the way, once you're well, I need you to do something."

"Okay."

"Aren't you going to ask me what I want you to do?"

"It's okay. I'll do anything for you. You're my friend!"

"Reaalllly? Well, you agreed on your own! I didn't force you!" With a happy cackle, Shunsui sprinted out of the room before Jyuushirou had the chance to change his mind. A mischievous glint was in his eyes.

**Author's Notes: This chapter was rather difficult to write. I had to rewrite the paragraphs a few times. Once again, as I've mentioned last week, the focus is on Shun-chan. Next week's chapter will be focusing on Jyuu-chan instead. Just for interest sake, the tentative title of the next chapter is 'Up to No Good'. Before I end off, there are a few parts of this chapter that I would like to comment on:**

**1) Followers of the recent chapters will probably know that Jyuu-chan is (what I'll interpret and describe as) 'painfully honest' in nature. In the first half of this chapter, he chose instead, to not be 'painfully honest' to his fan girls for fear of hurting their feelings. He shall pay for it in the future (sorry, my darling Jyuu. T_T)**

**2) The part about Shun-chan preferring to dance is a reference to and inspired by Kubo Tite's Bleach Bootleg's entry on Shun-chan.**

**3) The part about black sesame seeds and hair is a reference to a Chinese belief (I think). As I've mentioned in the chapter, the belief is that eating black sesame makes the hair nice and black. (I used 'dark' in the chapter because Shun-chan's hair is brown.) You won't get as much white hair if you eat black sesame. That's why black sesame paste is such a popular Chinese desert (perhaps). Anyway, this is simply based on what I've heard. I'm not even sure that there's such a belief. Haha. I was jokingly thinking to myself one day that Jyuu-chan needs more black sesame to make his hair dark/black (not that I really want his hair to be dark/black though. His white hair is part of his appeal).**

**4) I've always believed Shun-chan to have an elegant and neat handwriting. What do you think?**

**Okay, this is it. Thank you for reading this chapter. Please help me review!**


	7. Worries

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_A/N: I'm sorry that this update took a slightly longer time than usual. I went on a holiday trip to a resort island for a few days, you see. Thank you very much for all the reviews and feedback for last chapter! Thanks to Dark Magician Girl KKC for the PM once again!_

_To Artificial Life Creator: I'm ashamed to say so, but I actually kind of agree with you that the dialogues are kind of off. Actually, I thought the 'flow' was kind of off... Hmmm... Let's just hope that this chapter will be slightly better._

_To skymaster23: Let's just say that you were wondering about the right thing._

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

_By the way, remember that I said that the tentative title for this chapter was 'Up to No Good'? Well, I changed it. The 'Up to No Good' episode got a little longer than I expected, so I had it split into two again. So, here you go. I hope you enjoy this chapter!_

**Chapter Seven- Worries**

In the Shinigami Academy's sick-room, its most regular occupier sat on his bed with his arms crossed and his forehead creased into his frequent frown. For a young man like Jyuushirou, frowns had, by right, no reason to be a regular visitor to his pale but handsome face. Quite unfortunately for Jyuushirou however, he was unlike all the other young men his age. He was born with many reasons to carry a frown on his face. Worries about his health, worries about his siblings and worries about his family's financial circumstances - these are just some of the worries that the weak and poor man had to carry. Right now however, his constantly worrying mind was entirely occupied by another worry - the worry that his best friend might be up to no good. This, compared to all his other worries, was just an occasional one, but it was a worry big enough to take over Jyuushirou's mind entirely. His best friend was a passionate lover of trouble. It would have been easy for Jyuushirou to just say no to all the unwanted trouble if his friend was just a mere seeker for trouble; but no, his best friend was nothing like such. Kyouraku Shunsui was like a hurricane. Unsatisfied with the relative peace, Shunsui was very much under the impression that it was his duty to sweep up a riot, and sweeping and whirling Jyuushirou along was part of his right. There was no chance for Jyuushirou to escape the hurricane. A hurricane hears no reason.

_'How did I get myself into this?'_ wondered Jyuushirou, shaking his head in desperation. He had previously agreed to help his best friend to 'do something' once he become well and fit, but with Shunsui's increasingly gleeful and mischievous grins during each subsequent visits, it became clear to Jyuushirou that Shunsui's notion of 'doing something' was not as simple as Jyuushirou had originally thought. _I am so dumb!_ he thought, feeling irritated at himself, _I should've asked Kyouraku before I agreed!_ He had tried his best to get Shunsui to spill his plans out, but Shunsui's lips were always sealed. He tried several times to ask the question at the most unexpected times in hopes that Shunsui would accidentally blurt the answer out, but he failed every single time - not that he had expected himself to succeed, of course. He knew Shunsui was too sharp to fall for such a silly trick. He was merely doing it in faint hopes that he might somehow succeed. Each time, Shunsui would simply curl his lips into a smile and answer in a sing-song voice, "I'm not telling you anything. You'll know when the time comes. Don't even think of backing out, Jyuu-Jyuu! You promised, remember?" It was this response that worried Jyuushirou the most. Jyuushirou felt that he was foolish enough to not enquire about Shunsui's plans when he first talked about it, but he was not so foolish as to be completely unable to discern the object of Shunsui's plans. If Shunsui was worried that Jyuushirou might back out upon hearing his plans, it must mean that his plans involved somebody big - somebody who was extremely important in the school; somebody that most people in their right minds would prefer not to offend; and somebody without the right mind like Shunsui would obviously love to infuriate.

It was ironic. On one hand, Shunsui had no interest in all the happenings around him. He claimed himself to be a peace-loving man, who had completely no interest in all the ugly things happening around him, especially chaos-causing happenings. On the other hand, he had no qualms about stirring up little troubles of his own, all in the name of good fun. That was how all the complains of sexual harassments had came about; and that was how all the little arguments with their teachers had came about too. Shunsui hated chaos, but he was chaos himself. The chaos that he brought about was usually rather small and enjoyable, and so Jyuushirou had never quite bothered to stop Shunsui much. But now that Jyuushirou had thought it through carefully, he was starting to regret it. _I might have spoilt Kyouraku a little too much_, he thought miserably, _and now Hurricane Shunsui is finally going out of control._

It was simple for Jyuushirou to work out who Shunsui's intended target might be. After all, save for the beautiful Mizuno-sensei who was fortunately of the female gender, Shunsui hated all his teachers. He hated Nakazawa-sensei for his endless blabbering on boring subjects. He hated Arisada-sensei's disgusting advances towards him. He hated Genryuusai-sensei's old-fashion nagging, preaching, and most of all, his critical (and in Shunsui's opinion - ignorant and narrow-minded) remarks on his flamboyant mannerisms. Indeed, there were many targets for Shunsui to choose from, and a person who did not know Shunsui well would probably have some trouble working out the likely target. For Jyuushirou however, it did not require even a single drop of brain juice. Jyuushirou knew Shunsui well. Shunsui liked to pick on the big fish, and the biggest fish in town was definitely Genryuusai-sensei. And to Jyuushirou, that was bad news. Really bad news.

* * *

As Jyuushirou thought about Shunsui, he shifted uncomfortably in his bed. He was waiting for the school nurse of the day to arrive to do his body check-up. The sick-room of the Academy was managed by the lower seats of the Gotei Thirteen's Fourth Division. Every day, one of the lower seats of the Fourth Division would be sent to be on duty in the Academy's sick-room. This was to give the lower seated officers some practical training with minor cases. However, since Jyuushirou's case was anything but minor, a higher seated officer (the tenth seat and above) would occasionally be assigned to the sick-room for the day to check on Jyuushirou. On days whereby Jyuushirou was likely to be discharged, a higher seated officer would definitely be given the duty as the school nurse. Jyuushirou needed to get the 'okay' from the officer before he was free to be released from his 'cell with four white concrete walls'.

The school nurse on duty today was the third seat of the Fourth Division, Unohana Retsu. Unohana Retsu was a pale young lady with long black hair who was a couple of hundreds of years older than Jyuushirou. Out of respect for her as a shinigami senior, Jyuushirou often respectfully address her as senpai. Like all the other current shinigamis, she had received no academy training in Shinigami skills. All current shinigamis either had private training (i.e. those filthy rich nobles who were rich enough to hire tutors), or they somehow managed to figure out how to control their _reiatsu_ on their own (i.e. those poor unfortunate disadvantaged Rukongai commoners with some natural talent). From what Jyuushirou had heard from some of the other officers, Unohana-senpai was the daughter of a prominent high-class noble family in Seireitei. She had received private training in Shinigami skills, and was rumoured to be extremely talented and skilled in Kendo despite her gentle high-class lady-like demeanour. However, instead of joining one of the offensive divisions of the Gotei Thirteen, Unohana-senpai chose to join the medical-specialised Fourth Division. She was a dedicated healer indeed - so serious was she in taking care of her patients, and so good her healing skills were, she was promoted to the third seat within five years of joining. Although members of the Fourth Division were often ridiculed upon, Jyuushirou was told that Unohana-senpai was often treated differently. It was not difficult for Jyuushirou to understand why though. It was not really because of Unohana-senpai's status as a member of a prominent family. It was also not really because of Unohana-senpai's rumoured prowess in combat. Unohana's serious, dignified and all-knowing demeanour was often sufficient to strike both fear and respect in peoples' hearts.

After a little more fidgeting by Jyuushirou in his bed, Unohana-senpai finally arrived for Jyuushirou's body check-up. With 180 years of experience with his frequently ill body, Jyuushirou did not actually need any medical check-up to know his current health condition. The body was his after all, and he knew fully well that he was fit to be discharged today. Usually, Jyuushirou could not wait to be discharged, but today was different. For once, Jyuushirou wanted to stay in his 'concrete cell' - at least for a few more days. _Maybe a few days later, Kyouraku might give up on his grand plan_, Jyuushirou thought inwardly, trying his very best to convince himself with something that he knew was unlikely. "S...Sen... Senpai," he started, as he looked away from Unohana-senpai in an attempt to avoid looking at her in the eyes. Jyuushirou was bad at lying, and lying to Unohana-senpai who had a pair of wise and strangely penetrating eyes was not just difficult for him, but also scary. He knew that he had practically no chance of succeeding, and knowing such a fact frightened him all the more. It was no exaggeration to say that Unohana-senpai was one of the last people in the world that he would want to lie to. Nevertheless, he had no choice. He had to do it.

"Yes, Ukitake-kun?" his senpai answered with her quiet soothing voice. Perhaps it was due to her job as a medical practitioner, because to Jyuushirou's great discomfort, she immediately turned to look at him to give his words her full attention.

Trying his best to ignore her gaze, Jyuushirou stuttered on, "Ummm... Senpai, I don't think I'm feeling very well. I umm... M... My head feels a little heavy... I think my fever might be coming back. I... I should probably stay here a little more, don't you think?"

"Really? I've just taken your temperature, and it was fine. You don't seem to be showing any signs of illness right now too. Don't worry, Ukitake-kun, you should be fine. You can always come back again later if you really feel unwell," responded Unohana-senpai with her kindly tone. Her eyes however, twinkled with a little amusement, as though she knew what Jyuushirou was up to. In fact, even without looking at her eyes, Jyuushirou was almost sure that she knew. He suspected that she might even be enjoying it. "I'm sure you are eager to be discharged, right?" she added, probably on purpose.

"No, no, senpai! I'm feeling _very_ unwell!" protested Jyuushirou in response, with great emphasis on the word 'very'. "Really! I... I think I have a sore throat!" Jyuushirou tried again, grabbing his throat lightly with his both hands to indicate its seriousness, "Yeah! I have a sore throat!"

"You don't sound hoarse at all, Ukitake-kun."

Maybe it was out of instincts, Jyuushirou agreed with her by muttering to himself in an audible voice, "Oh yeah... I don't..."

It was a stupid mistake; and upon his own realisation of it, he tried to cover up in a somewhat comical way with obvious great desperation in his tone. "No! No, senpai, please listen to me!" he begged. "I mean, I, ah, made a mistake. It's my stomach that hurts! Not my throat!" he finished lamely.

Once that excuse came out of his mouth, he regretted it straight away. There was no point in lying about his health condition anymore. With those lousy excuses of his, even an idiot could easily see that Jyuushirou was lying, let alone a person like Unohana-senpai. Sighing and shaking her head with an air of slight amusement, Unohana-senpai finally decided to shoot the question. "Ukitake-kun, what exactly is wrong with you today? With that honest nature of yours, you should know that you are a not a very talented liar. In fact, and you must pardon me from saying so, you're terrible. Very terrible."

In response to that, Jyuushirou ended up doing something really stupid. He did not know what prompted him to do something so dumb and ridiculous. Perhaps it was because of his frustration at his hopeless ability to lie. Perhaps he had spent too much time with Shunsui that he had unconsciously been influenced by Shunsui's verbal nonsense trait. Or perhaps it was because there was no way that he could have answered her with the truth. He could not possibly tell Unohana-senpai that the reason for his reluctance to leave the sick-room was because he did not want to join Operation Hurricane Shunsui: Attack of the Old Mountain. That might land Shunsui in trouble! In his moment of panic, Jyuushirou mindlessly blurted out the first thing that came to his mind: a sentence that Shunsui always used on the on-duty female school nurses every time they tried to kick him out after visiting hours, "The truth is, I just want to spend more time with you here!"

The moment that cursed sentence spilled out of his mouth, Jyuushirou's face reddened and his eyes widened with horror. Even Unohana-senpai's normally calm face betrayed a slight hint of surprise. "NO! NO! THAT WAS NOT IT, SENPAI!" he exclaimed in alarm, waving his arms frantically as though to cancel all that he had said. "I DIDN'T MEAN IT! IT WAS AN ACCIDENT! I MEAN, OF COURSE I WANT YOU HERE, BUT I DO NOT WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOU! ARGH! NO, NO! WHAT AM I TALKING ABOUT? I MEAN, I WANT TO SPEND MORE TIME WITH YOU BUT I DIDN'T MEAN IT THAT WAY, SENPAI! I- I- I MEAN, I MEAN... ARGH!"

To Unohana-senpai's greater surprise, he suddenly used both his hands to whack his head hard a few times in frustration. He then took several deep breaths to calm himself down. Finally, in a weak voice and with his head staring down at his bed in total embarrassment, he whispered, "Senpai, I'm terribly sorry. Can you please forget what I've said earlier?"

Unfortunately or not, poor Jyuushirou did not get to hear her answer, because at that particular moment, Shunsui burst into the room loudly and boomed, "Shiro-chaaaannn! Are you ready to gooooooooo?" It did not take Shunsui more than a couple of seconds to notice that the atmosphere in the sick-room was strangely awkward. Freezing in his steps, Shunsui looked from Jyuushirou to Unohana-senpai and from Unohana-senpai back to Jyuushirou with great bemusement and also interest. "Hey, what's wrong with the both of you? C'mon, fill me in!" he asked with a crooked grin on his face as he walked towards Jyuushirou and Unohana-senpai. "What did you do to the pretty _senpai_ over here, Jyuu-Jyuu?" he teased. Fearful of exposure, Jyuushirou turned his guilty and embarrassed face away from Shunsui. "Ah! I know! You confessed your love to her!" chirped Shunsui, meaning it as a joke, not knowing that his joking words were spot on. Horror from the recent trauma filled Jyuushirou. He rose quickly from his bed, seized Shunsui and clapped a hand over Shunsui's mouth. "Shhhhhhhhhhhh..." he hissed at the gagging Shunsui. Forcing himself to muster the courage to look up at Unohana-senpai, he gave her a stare that was both apologetic and embarrassed. "Sorry," he mouthed.

With a kind look and eyes filled with understanding, Unohana-senpai offered him a small comforting smile and replied, "With those quick movements of yours, I'm sure you've no reason to stay. You can be discharged." With that, she turned to leave the sick-room, leaving Jyuushirou free to change into his school uniform.

Once Unohana-senpai left the room, a relieved Jyuushirou released the still-gagging Shunsui. "I'm... I'm right?" was the first thing Shunsui spluttered, as he turned to look at Jyuushirou with an incredulous look on his face, unable to believe that his best friend had actually confessed his love to somebody. Heaving a great big frustrated sigh, Jyuushirou nodded. Shunsui's jaw dropped heavily. "It was an accident!" Jyuushirou added quickly upon seeing Shunsui's reaction."I didn't really confess my love! No, it wasn't love! I accidentally used that line that you use all the time to flirt with the school nurses. I didn't mean it that way though! I panicked! It was unintentional and unforeseen, if you must know. It was all just an accident."

"Oh..." responded Shunsui slowly as he processed the information. "But... But why did you use that line in the first place?" he asked, clearly confused. It took him only a few seconds to realise the reason though. "Ohhhh!" the clever Shunsui exclaimed in realisation. "You idiot! If you didn't want to join in the plan, you should've said so!" he chided.

"Well, if I've said so, would you've agreed?" Jyuushirou retorted, with an eyebrow raised.

"Probably not," answered Shunsui admittedly, "But I know now! Don't worry. You don't have to join in the plan!"

"I've promised you my part," reminded Jyuushirou.

Waving a hand, his best friend assured him with an earnest tone, "No, no, it's okay! Really! I'm sorry about it anyway!"

Silence filled the room for a minute. Jyuushirou looked as though he was thinking something through. Finally, Jyuushirou broke the silence. "Kyouraku, are you really going to go ahead with the plan?"

"Yep," chirped Shunsui, without any hesitation at all.

Jyuushirou's next course of action depended on Shunsui's answer to his question, but it was not Shunsui's affirmation that gave Jyuushirou the answer to his question though. It was Shunsui's lack of hesitation. The lack of hesitation was a sign of determination - in this case, determination for the wrong thing, unfortunately. _If only Shunsui could develop the same determination for his studies as well_, he thought in exasperation.

"Well, I guess I'll have to join in then," he informed Shunsui with a matter-of-fact sort of tone.

"No, no! You don't have to! I'm not going to force you into this, Jyuushirou!" Shunsui reassured him once again, taking care to address Jyuushirou with his proper name. He normally addresses Jyuushirou by one of his many nicknames in their casual conversations, but during times when he needed to show that he was not joking in any way, he used 'Jyuushirou'.

Looking at Shunsui, Jyuushirou gave a great big sigh again. "Listen, I'm getting myself into it willingly this time round. Honestly speaking, although I don't know anything of your great big plan, I think it is stupid. But if I can't dissuade you from engaging in something stupid, then I must do the stupid thing together with you."

"Why?" asked Shunsui, although he had a feeling that he already knew Jyuushirou's answer to his question. After all, if Jyuushirou were the one with a crazy plan (although Shunsui did not think it likely), he would say and do the same too.

"Well, I need to be in the plan with you to drag you out of trouble when things get out of hand!"

**Author's Notes: Okay, I'm not too sure this chapter flows well, especially the lower part. It's 4.37 am now in my country though, and I'm kinda tired. I'm going to bed soon. I'll look through this chapter again tomorrow and see if more editing to the chapter is needed, okay? By the way, except for the part about Unohana being good in Kendo, the rests of the stuff about Unohana were made up by me. The last part of the chapter was kind of inspired by Operation Rescue Rukia from the SS Arc. I wanted to give Shunsui a reason for helping Jyuushirou. After all, he risked his life and captainship to save a girl who was not even part of his division.**

**4) I've always believed Shun-chan to have an elegant and neat handwriting. What do you think?**

**Okay, this is it. Thank you for reading this chapter. Please help me review!**


	8. The Wrestle Scene

**Where Our Lives Changed**

_Author's note: Sorry. After such a ridiculously long wait, this chapter will still not be revealing the Grand Plan. Please don't be angry with me._

_Disclaimer: 'Bleach' and the characters as well as the storyline featured in the works of Kubo Tite do not belong me._

**Chapter Eight- The Wrestle Scene**

If there was one thing that Jyuushirou knew for sure, it was this: The day he met Shunsui was the day that his life first changed.

If he had never met Shunsui, his life would never have been so unpredictable, so messy and yet, so fun. Yes, as much as Jyuushirou liked to deny the fact in the presence of Shunsui just to annoy him, deep in his heart he was really thankful to Shunsui - not thankful for all the troubles of course, but thankful for the colours that Shunsui had added to his hitherto grey life. Sure, his life had always been filled with some uncertainties, what with his wretched unreliable body. But as contradictory as it might sound, the so-called "uncertainties" were always things that Jyuushirou could easily foresee. He could not predict when his ailments would strike him, but he could easily see that if he had never met Shunsui, his whole life would hardly be more exciting than lying in bed sick. That was the kind of life that he was prepared for - until Shunsui changed everything.

Before he met Shunsui, his life was a depressing one. Sure, he had a wonderful family - loving and doting. Too loving, in fact. He adored them. He enjoyed every minute with them. But whenever he falls sick, his days turned agonising. For days he would lie in bed, delirious and unable to move. His parents' and siblings' faces would be stricken with worry, and no amount of whispered reassurances from the patient himself could relieve them from the pain in their hearts. It was heartbreaking for Jyuushirou to look at them. In order to not become a bigger burden to his family, Jyuushirou often reminds and forces himself to be optimistic. But stopping himself from feeling frustrated when his eyes meet those sad ones of his family members was sometimes a challenge. When he enrolled himself into the academy, Jyuushirou expected himself to spend most of his days in the sickroom with nothing but lessons to look forward to, but meeting Shunsui changed everything. With Shunsui, there was always something to be happy about; to be excited about; to be upset about; to be worried about. Every time Shunsui visited Jyuushirou, he would always talk about things to do when Jyuushirou becomes well again. Sometimes he would suggest lazing under a tree during a sunny day; sometimes he would suggest playing a trick on a male classmate that had incurred his wrath because the classmate had caught the eye of a female classmate that he liked. Sure, there were times when Shunsui seemed bothered when Jyuushirou was in extreme discomfort, but that did not stop him from talking about those future plans of his that must be carried out no matter what. He always _assumed_ that Jyuushirou would become well again. Because of him, Jyuushirou lived everyday in the academy believing that there will always be times when he would be well.

* * *

One day with Shunsui could easily be filled with many different events. If Jyuushirou had thought that his morning with Unohana-senpai and Shunsui was already chaotic enough, he would soon find out that he was greatly wrong. The short few minutes that he took to change from his sleepwear into his school uniform was nothing more than a short show break. Once he started his walk with Shunsui to classes, the show started running again too. And the stage for the starting scene? It was the corridor.

Any audience present in the corridor to view the show that Jyuushirou and Shunsui were putting on would undoubtedly agree that, save for the time when Jyuushirou was dragged by Shunsui to chase after a girl, there was no other more peculiar scene. Jyuushirou had set aside the thoughts of Shunsui's great plans for later and was walking down the corridor with his best friend. He was going to class. He _had the intention_ to go to class. He _thought_ he was going to class, and so when he reached the part of the corridor path that splits into two - one to the right that led to the school garden, and one to the left that led to the lecture hall where the _Shinigami Knowledge_ lectures were held - he turned to the path on the left. He was going to class.

"Where do you think you're going?" asked the smirking Shunsui when he saw Jyuushirou head for the path to Nakazawa-sensei's class.

"To class, of course," answered Jyuushirou immediately, as he turned around to look at Shunsui, who had been following him slowly all the time with a suspicion-worthy smile on his face. In his eagerness to get to class, Jyuushirou had taken no notice of that smile. It was a mistake on his part. Shunsui's smile was a dangerous one, especially when he had some "great task" at hand.

Hearing Jyuushirou's reply, Shunsui's mischievous smile turned into a full grin as he declared, "No, we're not." He pointed a thumb to the direction of the school garden and winked at Jyuushirou. "We're going this way, silly. There are more important things to do now than to attend those silly classes."

The effect of Shunsui's words was dramatic. Jyuushirou's eyes widened with surprise while his pupils contracted with great displeasure. He looked at Shunsui as though he had never before seen the person standing in front of him. His best friend might be lazy, but Jyuushirou had never before dreamed that Shunsui would ask him to play truant! After all, Shunsui was - _well, sensible in his own way_, Jyuushirou always thought. Overdramatic as Jyuushirou's response might have seemed, "truant" had never been a word found in Jyuushirou's dictionary before. A person like Jyuushirou - no, a _good student_ like Jyuushirou - would never contemplate the idea of playing truant! Shunsui ought to know that! He ought to know that Jyuushirou - serious Jyuushirou who always pay rapt attention in class - would not agree to something like that! Playing tricks on teachers was something that Jyuushirou could accept to a certain extent as a part of healthy school life, but having the audacity to declare a personal holiday? Good lord, no!

"Are you suggesting that we skip classes?" exclaimed Jyuushirou in a scandalised tone that sounded as though he thought that there was nothing more sinful in the world than skipping classes. "Don't be ridiculous, Kyouraku! Nothing in this world - let me repeat, _nothing_ in this world - can compel us TO NOT GO TO CLASS!" And with an immense strength peculiar to a man like Jyuushirou's size, he tugged Shunsui's arm and dragged him towards the direction of Nakazawa-sensei's precious teachings.

Unfortunately for Jyuushirou, Shunsui was not somebody who gives up on something easily though. With a similar great strength, he dragged Jyuushirou back towards the opposite direction instead. "You are the one who is being ridiculous, Shiro," said Shunsui in an extremely calm tone, "Classes are plentiful! We have them every day! Skipping some of them is fine, I'm sure. Now, be a good boy and come. I really must brief you on our utmost important plan."

"No!" Jyuushirou cried in protest, as he used both hands to grab Shunsui tightly on the shoulders. "I've already agreed to join your great plans, whatever it is! But this is skipping school that you're talking about. There's no way that I will compromise on this! This is my pride as a student on the line!"

From Jyuushirou's tight grips on his shoulders, Shunsui knew: His best friend's determination in going to class was no joke. If there was a flaw in their friendship, it was that the both of them were too different in thoughts and yet too similarly stubborn in character. Failing to shake off Jyuushirou's tight clasps, Shunsui gave a deep sigh. "There's no helping it," he said. He placed both his hands on Jyuushirou's shoulders and began his attempt to wrestle Jyuushirou into going along with him. It was a strange sight: two students wrestling each other in a corridor. "Look Shiro," started Shunsui, as he exerted all his efforts to push Jyuushirou towards the path to the garden, all the time resisting Jyuushirou's own attempts to push him towards Nakazawa-sensei's lecture hall. "I respect all other types of pride you have, but pride of a student? _A student_, you said? That's not something to be proud of! _Burden_ should be the word! Now, listen to me! You've already missed so many days of lessons, so what's one more day to you?"

"What's it to me?" cried Jyuushirou agitatedly, "I'll tell you what it means! It means one more day of missed lessons after so many days of missed lessons! Oh, and without somebody to take notes for US!"

"Nonsense! I'm sure you can easily seduce one of your fan girls into offering their notes to you!"

"I don't do any seduction, Kyouraku!"

"You just did, remember? To that senpai?"

"That was no seduction! That was an accident!"

"Look, if you go along with me, I'll treat you to something nice during the holidays!"

"I will not be so easily bribed!"

* * *

If it was not for the ringing of the start-of-class bell, the both of them would have continued their side-tracked quarrel and wrestled on to the end of eternity. Fortunately, the loud and bright ringing of the bell brought them back to their senses. Upon hearing the first few chimes of the bell, the both of them flung their arms up and away from each other, collapsed to the floor, and starting breathing and huffing deeply to catch their breaths. Once they had regained their breaths, the two friends looked up at each other with tired frowns on their face, but the frowns lasted only for a second. The next moment, the both of them bursted out laughing, finding hilarious their crazy quarrel and ridiculous wrestling.

It took them a long while before they finally regained themselves. Shunsui was the one to first gain control over his laughing self. Without a word to the still-laughing Jyuushirou, he stood up and turned (much to Jyuushirou's astonishment) to the direction of Nakazawa-sensei's class.

"Where do you think you are going, Kyouraku?" asked Jyuushirou quickly, as he stopped his laughing immediately and blinked blankly at Shunsui.

Shunsui did not look back at his friend. With his back still facing Jyuushirou and his head bowed, he answered the words that Jyuushirou had used earlier, "To class, of course."

"Huh?" was Jyuushirou's confused answer.

A pause of silence interrupted them for a while. "_Ne_, Jyuushirou..." mumbled Shunsui finally, in a soft and apologetic tone, "I'm sorry." The apology was delivered with some great impact.

Shunsui had many peculiar traits that intrigued Jyuushirou a lot, and one such trait was his strange ability to deliver everything in a dramatic and impactful fashion that was difficult to shake off and ignore. Even something like a sincere and soft apology by Shunsui came off unintentionally dramatic. "I was being really wilful, was I not?" Shunsui continued. "I shouldn't have forced you to do things that you do not really want to do." Then, turning back to face Jyuushirou again, he gave his friend a sheepish grin. "Stop lazing on the floor, Shiro!" he cried with his familiar loud booming voice as he wagged a finger at Jyuushirou mischievously. "We're late!" His sheepish grin then changed into a grin of satisfaction as he pumped an arm into the air in a boyish way and chuckled. "That felt good! I've always wanted to try bossing somebody for once! Mutsuki-baachan always makes it seem so fun!"

Jyuushirou, however, gave no response and made no effort to move even an inch from his sitting position. A small smile had crept to his face, and in his attempt to hide it from Shunsui, he bowed his head in a similar fashion to what Shunsui had done just a moment ago. "Kyouraku," he started softly, "I don't seduce people."

It was a strange sentence to make, and Shunsui made no attempt to hide what he thought of it. His forehead furrowed in bemusement as he wondered what Jyuushirou was driving at. With great uncertainty, he answered, "Erm… Yeah… You told me just now already. It was stupid of me to even suggest it though. You don't even have to seduce any one of them and they'll give their notes to you all the same if you'll just ask," he continued.

"I… don't really want to ask those girls for anything."

"…" At that, Shunsui was struck speechless for a few seconds. His frown deepened with worry for his friend's sudden strangeness. "I know that too. That's why I told you to hurry up and head to class now. We might not miss much if you'll just get your arse off the floor immediately," he finally managed to say.

"But there's no helping it. We're already late anyway." At the end of his sentence, Jyuushirou finally looked up at Shunsui, revealing the small smile that he was hiding earlier. "I'm only going to make an exception just this once. Do you understand me, Kyouraku? I'm doing this for you only because you sound like you really want to carry out this great plan of yours. By the way, you're buying me lunch for the rest of the week," he said, his eyes twinkling a little. "Now, what are you standing there like an idiot for? The direction that we're going-" he rose to his feet and pointed a thumb towards the garden, "-is this way."


End file.
